Dragon's Dogma 2 is an unparalleled adventure that emphasizes exploration and immersive combat. The many classes keep the battles fresh and the world always offers something new to discover without becoming boring. Nevertheless, the game is very peculiar, has strange design decisions, performance problems and can be very frustrating at times. But if you can cope with this or are a fan of the first part, you will get one of the best open-world experiences in a long time.
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Harold Halibut is a special video game. Not only the incredibly elaborate style and how it was realized contribute to this, but also the fresh setting filled with lots of love and crazy nonsense. The basic gameplay does lag behind quite a bit, but for an adventure game you can easily cope with that.
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Dead Island 2 continues where its predecessors left off. The new gore system adds a lot to the game, but the bottom line is that it stays true to its formula and doesn't really reinvent anything. Boring mission design is more than saved by the massive variation of enemy variants and the very fun melee fights, and fans of blunt butchery should grab it anyway. Hell-A!
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Evil West is a linear oldschool action festival with a story you can easily skip through, good sounddesign and some challenging gameplay. The amount of possibilities during the fights and the variety in the different sections bring lots of fun. If you are looking for that, you'll have a great time.
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Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a wonderful title for those who long for a Jet Set Radio 3. It offers beginner-friendly and enormously fun movement including trickery through all sorts of colorful and cool designed locations, packs a great soundtrack to your ears and only really disappoints in a few points like the fights or the too simple spraying.
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If you haven't played Tales of Symphonia yet, this is a wonderful opportunity to relive the great characters and the story, which many fans consider to be one of the best in the series. It unfortunately doesn't combine everything from the best versions here, but you don't necessarily have to mind that.
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Fort Solis is a thrilling sci-fi thriller experience that keeps you enthralled at all times, along with great voices and an immersive atmosphere. It doesn't reinvent the genre, nor will the story completely blow you away, but the execution is fabulous and graphically impressive. It is held back by a few inconsistencies, such as the final act, but is still without a doubt worthwhile for any fan of science fiction or cinematic games.
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Disgaea always stands out for its continuous development, and Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless offers fans an additional incentive to sink numerous hours into this peculiar and charming world. The systems and features become more and more in-depth, so it's not exactly suitable for beginners. Still, it's worth a visit for those who might have been a bit disappointed last year or are looking for a new strategy RPG.
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Persona 5 Tactica consistently impresses with its fun battles, which always remain fresh thanks to the variety of areas and elements. The music is once again absolutely superb and the story becomes serious and interesting once you have completed a little more than the first act. However, the pacing, the often underwhelming visual novel presentation and the limited game world drag down the overall impression somewhat.
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a journey into a wonderfully dark, serious and sometimes harsh world. You can expect many tough decisions, great characters and interesting twists, especially in the so-called "Haunting Case" side missions. Apart from that, the combat is unfortunately disappointing, remaining far too repetitive and clunky, and there is too much aimless wandering in the search for mission objectives. However, fans of the occult and the supernatural à la The Witcher or detective stories should definitely pick it up.
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ABRISS: build to destroy is an enormously beautiful looking puzzler full of destruction and particle effects. The large arsenal of building options leaves little to be desired when it comes to demolishing the levels and the campaign constantly adds new features. Unfortunately, the controls on the console are far too inaccurate and are also still annoying in the final levels, even if every error can be corrected immediately.
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Rise of the Ronin is little new and yet a lot of fun. The battle system from Nioh and Wo Long meets a classic open world, adds a story full of decisions for the duo protagonists and makes it more beginner-friendly overall. If you like the setting and don't expect any major innovations, you'll have an entertaining adventure on the island nation.
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Miasma Chronicles is pure tactical fun. It shows a strong understanding of what turn-based games of this type are all about. Because when it comes down to it, it's full of the decisions, trade-offs and per-move rewards that are so important in the genre. But on closer inspection, not everything has been thought through to the end in many places, and the game is too hung up on mistakes already made in its predecessors.
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The Last Faith covers several genres while creating a truly good mix. It features the impressive but fair bosses of a Souls game, the numerous, if at times confusing, exploration possibilities of a Metroidvania, and the dark style of Bloodborne. A shallow story and a lot of backtracking in the second half should therefore only moderately deter fans of the genre.
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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown managed the leap into the new genre of Metroidvanias really well. The battles are challenging, moving through the levels is enormous fun and there are visually impressive counterattacks to marvel at. The fact that the characters and story are inconsequential and the backtracking can be a bit tedious should not deter genre fans too much.
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In its best moments, The Crew Motorfest offers an incredibly great-looking and fun racing paradise, which gets a lot of variety from the playlists. Unfortunately, boats and planes hardly take place, NPCs are annoying and microtransactions are strangely omnipresent. However, those who can stand it and even like online multiplayer will have found their virtual vacation spot with Hawaii.
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Sand Land offers a nicely told story and, with its vehicles and many customization options, a special feature within the anime/manga adaptations. The visuals and Toriyama's charm are evident throughout the game and warm the heart. Unfortunately, the entire background music lags far behind, the battles outside the vehicles are not convincing and some dungeons drag on quite a bit.
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Lords of the Fallen is a really ambitious Souls-like game. It's one of the few that brings great innovation to the table, but it forgets to keep the technology together and to alternate bosses and enemies in addition to the oppulent visuals. Fans of the genre should therefore give the game a few more patches, then you should have quite a fun time in Mournestead.
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Pacific Drive is made for fans of survival games and sci-fi adventures. With its captivating anomalies and subtle horror, the hugely important and extensive maintenance of the station wagon and the somewhat frustrating ruthlessness. Pacific Drive offers a unique experience with a charming flair and is a great debut from Ironwood Studios.
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While Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten has quite an extensive and interesting story with likable characters, the general pacing and longevity of the battles get in the way, as the game is simply far too long for that. However, Utawarerumono fans and JRPG lovers will still get their money's worth.
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