Thanks to its legacy of the excellent Pillars of Eternity games, Avowed is built on a strong foundation. That comes through in every aspect of the game, from its deep lore to its exceptional world-building, characters, and writing. Smartly avoiding the pitfalls of an empty open world, it gives the players densely interesting zones to explore, weighty choices to make, and engaging companions to rely on. Avowed takes the Pillars of Eternity universe on an assured and thoroughly enjoyable journey from CRPG to the action genre.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is more ambitious, more polished and more narratively complex than the first game. It’s an impressive achievement that moves the unique franchise significantly forward.
In a deluge of Soulslikes and 2D Metroidvanias, 2021’s Tails of Iron stood out, thanks to its beautiful art, excellent combat, and engaging premise. All of that’s true for Whiskers of Winter. The sequel is just as visually distinctive and narratively interesting. The game’s combat can be extremely challenging, but this time there are options for dialing back the difficulty, which makes the game slightly more accessible to less hardcore ARPG fans. Tails of Iron 2: Whispers of Winter doesn’t radically reinvent the first game’s art or approach but definitely improves and deepens it. Anyone feeling fatigued with copycat pixel art Soulslikes should give Whiskers of Winter a try.
Its distinctive story and setting, coupled with generally enjoyable combat, puzzles, and exploration make it a pretty strong choice for genre fans looking for their next game.
By not numbering this latest game, the developers are signaling a rebirth of the series. In many ways that’s true. The action-RPG mechanics and narrative-heavy design bring the franchise in line with other ARPGs. At the same time, Dynasty Warriors: Origins is still a Musou game at heart. The immense battles fans of the genre love are still there. There’s less of a repetitive feeling this time around, and the game should be successful in courting new players coming from other ARPGs.
Luma Island offers something for everyone with a love for relaxing and inviting games. Grinding aside, the farming, crafting, and exploration aspects are all equally viable experiences. There are some minor frustrations and a few shallow moments, but on the whole Luma Island offers an endlessly appealing escape from the real world.
Bounce Arcade is a definite success. It has an original concept that’s well executed and lots of fun.
Mirthwood is an entertaining and engaging mashup of cozy farming and RPG adventuring. It’s easy to spend a lot of relaxing time puttering around, chatting up the townsfolk or combing the world for treasure.
aveats aside, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 offers a wide array of structured activities, plenty of guidance and, you know, the whole world to explore. It’s a great point of entry for armchair pilots and pretty satisfying for all but the most hardcore flight enthusiasts.
Fans of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise expect uncompromising action and are largely immune to the series’ rough edges. For them, S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 delivers, adding a vast open world filled with danger and discovery. The release day patch fixed many big issues, but the game still needs serious additional polish. Some casual shooter fans might be put off by S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2’s difficulty and opacity, but players who have patiently waited for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 will be pleased.
I’ve loved and played Planet Coaster for years, and I really wanted the sequel to be the ultimate coaster-building experience. The potential is there. The water features are great, and the new coasters are exciting. Many of the tweaks and changes add new flexibility and sophistication to the building process. At the same time, the game’s lack of final technical polish and its time-consuming, heavy learning-curve, convoluted UI added an element of frustration to what should have been a familiar but unassailably better experience.
By almost every metric, Horizon Zero Dawn is a classic action RPG. For anyone who missed it, the Remastered edition is definitely the version to pick up. For those who already own it, the upgrade to Remastered is a reasonable $10 and at least on PS5, PS4 cloud saves work just fine. If the new and improved visuals inspire folks to play the game, or play it again, that’s a win for everyone.
Polished and confident, Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like a return to form for the developer. Dragon Age: The Veilguard gives us a beautiful world to experience, interesting allies to explore it with, and action that grows increasingly more nuanced throughout.
Although it’s pretty bare bones, Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered definitely does gamers a service by bringing a cult classic to current consoles. Some of the 2011 original’s action and humor doesn’t quite live up to our fond memories of it. On the whole, Grasshopper Manufacture’s surreal action game remains weird and entertaining.
The Quiet Place films had a remarkably simple but very effective narrative hook. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a pitch-perfect, authentic recreation of the movies’ tone and tension. What holds it back is the lack of variety in player input stretched over the game’s running time of eight or so hours. It’s definitely not a great game for fidgety, impatient players. For fans of the films and/or stealth-focused adventure horror games, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead effectively checks a lot of boxes.
MechWarrior 5: Clans does a good job of balancing story, combat, and the all-important time in between. Customizing the mechs and gearing up the squad are both lots of fun and the battles themselves are appropriately oversized.
New World: Aeternum’s mix of swords, magic and gunpowder is blended with a colorful world and accessible but satisfying mechanics. With a good balance between solo, co-op PvE and PvP content, Aeternum has something to offer most players. Nothing’s incredibly original, but neither is anything totally broken or missing. The most glaring faults of the original have been addressed. Whatever you call it — reboot, remix or re-skin — New World: Aeternum is worth checking out.
While I wouldn’t call Darksiders II underrated, sales notoriously underperformed in 2012. Since then, lots of players have taken the opportunity to enjoy the game on a variety of platforms in the expanded and excellent Deathfinitive edition. Any fan of recent action RPGs will almost certainly enjoy Darksiders II’s combat and world. It looks great on the PS5 and anyone with the PS4 version gets a free upgrade. It’s definitely worth diving into again, or for the first time in the new version.
Vessel of Hatred’s campaign, new region, new class, and new cooperative dungeon all significantly extend the base game’s appeal and depth. If you don’t already enjoy the near-constant, frenetic, often exhilarating, sometimes exhausting combat, Vessel of Hatred isn’t going to win you over no matter how impressive it often is.
I really enjoy Throne and Liberty’s colorful world, detailed environments, and engaging combat. Though the story is pretty uninspired, the game is technically polished and that alone is worthy of praise. But as a primarily solo player, the game isn’t for me in the long run. That’s not really a criticism, because being built for groups isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. That was true back at the dawn of MMORPGs and sometimes it’s still true. I think Throne and Liberty has a lot of promise to succeed at launch and grow beyond it.