Adam Beck's Reviews
There are only a handful of games in the franchise that stick out as truly memorable and Space Marine is one of them.
Black Myth: Wukong is a phenomenal, enthralling and imaginative experience that’s a must-play for anyone who enjoys Chinese mythology.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail excels in its promise to bring exciting new jobs and combat scenarios to the New World. Unfortunately, it falls short of expectations when it comes to the narrative, which ends up being a mess of issues.
When compared to Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t quite live up to its lofty expectations. As a standalone experience, though, Shadow of the Erdtree is an absolute treasure that only helps to enhance the enjoyment of Elden Ring as a whole.
Stellar Blade delivers masterclass gameplay, spectacular visuals and a compelling universe. It no doubt will draw comparisons to Nier and its successor, but what Shift Up has done is improved upon the formula greatly in creating one of the best action games of the year. The combat will have you engaged from start to finish, and while the story is overly predictable, the beautiful visuals and mesmerizing soundtrack will have you immersed. It does have fatigue when it comes to the open areas and side quests, and there’s a lost opportunity with the location choices, but the main story has been finely crafted into a wondrous adventure that will last over fifty hours. It helps that the side quests help establish the lore of the world and the characters are compelling enough to keep your interest. In the end, Stellar Blade is a must-play.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is majestic, marvelous and magnificent. It’s an experience that’s like no other that will have you immersed for every second of play. Unfortunately, there are certain elements that hold it back from greatness. For starters, retreading already-explored areas for side quests and materials is a pain. Getting from point A to point B is a hassle that requires a great deal of time or coin because of the lack of a competent traversal system. On top of that, this could have immensely benefited from cooperative play. It already has multiplayer functions, so it’s disappointing we only got asynchronous gameplay, especially considering a pawn’s AI can be lacking outside of combat and their mouths do not stop moving. With that said, combat is highly engaging, the structure of the open world encourages exploration like nothing else and lack of hand holding is the best choice Capcom could have made. Dragon’s Dogma 2 has all the right to be the Elden Ring of 2024, but unfortunately, it’s held back by technical limitations and bizarre design choices. Despite this, there’s still so much brilliance to be found.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a big step in the right direction that’s unfortunately held back by graphical anomalies and open world tropes. It’s an emotional rollercoaster ride that’s heavily back loaded. It'll pull on your heart strings and make you invested in each character more than ever before. It helps that all the memorable moments from the original are not only retained, but strengthened thanks to the graphical prowess of the PlayStation 5. Combat also remains highly engaging, with slight modifications that only enhance the experience further. Unfortunately, Rebirth is also marred with baffling design choices that stifle its greatness. It's filled with mini-games that thankfully are mostly in side quests, as their controls and function leave much to desire. At the very least they will keep you interested as it never gets stale. On top of that, while most of the graphics will have you impressed, low resolution textures and geometry are spliced in the most confusing of ways, only pulling you out of the immersion. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has its share of issues that prevent it from greatness, but whether you’re a dire hard fan or relatively new to the saga, this remains an RPG for the ages.
Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen isn’t going to blow your socks off, but it does expand the lore ever so slightly and introduce a beloved franchise antagonist. This is essentially a two-to-three-hour long mission going from room to room, clearing out baddies and taking down raid-approved bosses. The rewards for endgame players not looking to go into new game+ are worth it, and the adventure along the way is compelling enough to keep our attention. It may be formulaic and overly straightforward, but it doesn’t stray too far from the fantastical formula the main campaign established. The only major thing missing is an eikon fight. In the end, Echoes of the Fallen is a solid adventure that will keep you entertained for an evening.
Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid remain some of the best stealth action games on the planet, so it’s disappointing they’ve been treated with such disregard. With that said, at the very least the Maser Collection is beautiful time capsule of how the series has evolved, even including translated encyclopedias of the games. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 has plenty of technical frustrations, but at least it remains true to the classics.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is one of the most cinematic superhero games ever created.
Disgaea 7 improves upon its predecessor by building a balanced and more complete roster than what we've become used to, but unfortunately it falls apart in other areas.
Starfield is a momentous RPG, even if it doesn't quite deliver in all its areas.
Final Fantasy XVI will change what we think of the franchise moving forward.
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection remains true to its original releases while adding a couple of appreciated additions to clean up some of its timewasters.
It may have been sold on seemingly every platform on the planet, but finally we have a proper remake to the 2005 classic.
Motive Studio has done the unthinkable with Dead Space. It has turned this iconic, incredibly memorable survival horror game from fifteen years ago into an even more immersive and engaging experience.
It's hard to believe that it has taken Persona 4 over a decade to branch outside of its PlayStation shackles.
Persona 3 Portable was a gem when it came to the PlayStation Portable nearly thirteen years ago, but it was very much meant for the hardware of its time.
Warhammer: 40,000: Darktide is one of the most enjoyable games of the year, but it's tremendously rough around the edges.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force feels drained of life.