Disco Elysium deserves applause for having a singular vision and generally bringing it to fruition through its art, writing, setting, characters and gameplay mechanics which suggest the heyday of classic isometric RPGs.
While it lacks the processing punch of a PC-tethered headset, the mobility and no-strings-attached freedom of the Oculus Quest has allowed me to dive deep into the headset as a fitness product, and Beat Saber, Box VR and a few other titles are in regular rotation.
The problem with all puzzle games is that they are almost always a single-play through experience, so that initial run has to be the memorable one. Moons of Madness has some jump scares and other surprises, but its biggest draw might be that it takes Lovecraftian elements into a wholly new environment and replaces combat with exploration, puzzles and a slow-growing sense of confusion and dread.
Aside from some minor visual glitches and pop-in and some finnicky platforming, A Knight’s Quest is not at a bad time but it’s not an experience that will stick with you, either. Its focus on humor instead of drama or pathos will be a selling point for players weary of self-important heroes and dark themes but on the flip side, humor is very subjective. From its title to its overall mechanics, A Knight’s Tale seems like a safely familiar variation on a popular but over-played theme, appealing for its recognizable form but less satisfying for its lack of creative ambition.
Although it has an intriguing story that feels like a Greek mythology greatest hits collection, Argonus and the Gods of Stone impresses with a fresh setting and the transposition of the puzzle-adventure genre into the world of ancient gods and heroic characters.
Deliver Us the Moon is a good-looking game with a solid story premise that doesn’t quite stick the final landing.
As an allegory, bringing light to personal or cultural darkness through art isn’t terribly original but it’s still relatively surprising for any game to have a wider subtext, and besides, Concrete Genie’s deepest pleasures are aesthetic.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a masterpiece of design that balances tradition and subtle innovation and is very bit as entertaining on the Switch as it was on PC or PS4.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with complexity and challenge in a game but Warsaw adds to the mix some capricious unpredicatability in its AI mechanics and design that can be frustrating, resulting in gameplay that is simply not on the winning side of the challenge/reward equation.
While there is no lack of stuff to do — story missions, side quests, and faction missions, not to mention the multiplayer PvP Ghost Wars suite which is the marquee feature for many players — not all of it is engaging and most all of it has been done before and better, not only by other shooters but by other games in the Ghost Recon franchise.
As a design doc, a game that combines horror, sci-fi and Norse mythology sounds intriguing but in actually, Apsulov just seems uncertain of its identity.
While it isn’t technically a new game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening looks and feels as fresh and inviting as any new game released on the Switch. It preserves all the strange, playful fun of the original while utterly transforming it visually and mechanically, and preserves everything that made Link’s Awakening a classic.
From its title screens to its combat mechanics, The Surge 2 copy/pastes a great deal from the two-year-old original and while it moves the franchise into a more open and populated world, I was hoping for a more dramatic evolutionary leap. Like its Soulsborne models and its predecessor, The Surge 2 is a challenging game, made more so by an inconsistent frame rate and sometimes imprecise combat controls.
Almost more than any other expansion or add-on pack, Realm of Magic changes the core gameplay and daily life routine of the Sims characters.
Pagan Online’s Slavic fantasy pulls from mythologies that are slightly off the beaten path, but so much of the game feels like familiar — and what’s worse, less successful — tropes, mechanics and ideas gleaned from other ARPGs, MOBAs and mobile games.
Sometimes people deride big-budget games as conservative, safe products, focus-tested and drained of imagination. But also, a bigger budget allows for quality writing, ruthless editors and designers with the chops to pull off a high concept.
While Children of Morta stays pretty solidly in the tradition of recent RPG/roguelikes, its packaging — graphics, design, story and characters — elevate it above the pack and players who have grown weary of the genre will find it refreshing. It’s challenging without (usually) being unfair and while there is plenty of varied combat, there is a story with some heart and soul for any player looking for a break from constant hack and slash.
In the seven years since Torchlight II was released, dungeon crawlers have both evolved into a more complex genre and toyed with mechanics pulled from outside them, such as roguelikes.
Hunt: Showdown doesn’t try to do a lot of things beyond its core mission, and the challenging gameplay and limited selection of maps — though they are expansive and interesting — might be a barrier to long-term enjoyment.
By most metrics — polish, graphics, writing, acting and engaging game play mechanics — Gears 5 is an impressive product for both solo players and competitive or cooperative shooter fans. But moving forward, the series desperately needs to venture into new ways of telling its stories and pacing its encounters.