Samuel Incze's Reviews
Whilst I believe that The Last of Us Part II Remastered might have been unnecessary, it does offer a variety of new features for you to enjoy. The cosmetic additions are welcomed and having the option to strum a guitar endlessly may be a bit of fun. However, I believe it will come down to whether or not you want to experience the extra dual sense features or if you are interested in a Last of Us Part II themed roguelike mode, that’ll determine if you play it or not.
Winter Survival is honestly a complete waste of time. The story might give you some initial intrigue. However, the stiff gameplay mixed with unreasonable survival mechanics leads to a frustrating experience that will deter you from being able to make significant progress. Do yourself a favour and pass on this one!
Minecraft Legends is a bland strategy title that fails to impress. The core tactical systems are shallow and have been implemented quite poorly and the third person combat and traversal is underwhelming at best. As you are locked to controlling your hero, constructing defenses and ordering troops can also feel quite awkward meaning this experience quickly becomes very tedious. This is really unfortunate, because the story is decent, and has some clever humour. However, this is not enough of a reason to be worth investing time into Minecraft Legends.
LEGO Bricktales fails to live up to its potential. The game’s building mechanic is really tedious and annoying. The LEGO pieces are often difficult to maneuver into specific positions and the controls are quite awkward. The level exploration is bland and the narrative is simplistic and uninteresting. Overall LEGO Bricktails is a real disappointment and not worth the time investment.
SkateBIRD’s attempt to create a Tony Hawk-esque style skateboarding game with birds, is largely underwhelming and struggles to impress. With unresponsive controls and a camera that seems to flip all over the place, SkateBIRD fails to provide any reasons to be worth picking up.
AEW Fight Forever struggles to find its place with its first entry into the world of video games! Whilst it tries to set itself apart from WWE’s flagship series, with a lack of creativity and variety, it just ends up becoming a bit monotonous. There may be something here for die hard fans, but unfortunately beyond a few matches in exhibition and a lacklustre career mode, AEW Fight Forever does not do enough to be an enticing wrestling game! Unfortunately, unlike the actual AEW brand, the game just can’t compete with its WWE counterpart!
Tchia does initially give players a decent narrative to latch on to. Unfortunately, after a couple hours of play, it becomes quite dry. Tchia’s setting, which is heavily based on New Caledonia, does look stunning, especially with its simple art style. However, the world does feel quite empty, and with traversal often feeling quite slow, there is little reason left for players to take on the chore of seeing the sights.
With a lackluster narrative, and gameplay mechanics that are basic and largely unenjoyable, Lake ends up being a monotonous experience that is really not worth the time investment.
Though Sable may have a fantastic art style and a large open world, with a variety of environments, its lack of a strong narrative and underwhelming gameplay fail to impress. The game may seem intriguing at first, but ultimately, it will leave players disappointed.
Gunhead is a FPS roguelike that promises a level of challenge with its procedurally generated levels and unique gunplay system. However, it can't escape the monotonous rinse and repeat formula of the gameplay, and the samey level design. The inclusion of a sporadic half-baked narrative in this style of game just leaves a lot to be desired.
SpongeBob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake is a really bland affair! It’s disappointing and uninspired level design, that often feels like it drags on way too long, mixed with its really dated gameplay mechanics makes for quite a generic platforming adventure with stiff controls. Whilst the narrative is entertaining and does its absolute best to be a redeeming factor, it just isn’t enough to be a selling point for The Cosmic Shake. I am honestly saddened to say that SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is quite a dull experience and is not worth picking up.
Whilst Pentiment promises to give players a fascinating narrative that takes all choices and actions into account, whilst exploring the themes of Politics and Religion in Europe in the 1500s, the uninteresting introduction, as well as the countless meaningless interactions throughout the title, makes itfeel much too long for what it is trying to achieve. There is an interesting plot to uncover here, but you will have to sift through quite a few hours worth of tedious dialogue with the occasional unnecessary minigame thrown in for ‘good’ measure.
Trek To Yomi may have a great narrative and an excellent visual design, however the stiff combat mechanics and tedious exploration sections may quickly diminish any desire to see the game through to the end. Despite having great potential, Trek To Yomi fails to deliver and instead becomes a very lackluster experience!
Whilst Shadow Warrior 3 boasts some fantastic combat and interesting new traversal elements, it’s failed attempt to give us a narrative filled with the creativity and humour that we have become accustomed to with the series, really leaves a lot to be desired! The gameplay’s rinse and repeat formula can become quite tedious and will leave many players disinterested fairly early on!
Stellar Blade is a fun hack-and-slash that leaves a little to be desired. The story is decent, the combat is challenging, but traversal and some mechanics bring the experience down. There is a lot to enjoy here, and despite its flaws, it should keep you entertained for a while.
The Talos Principle II is a fun, but challenging, puzzle adventure. The narrative is intriguing, even if it is a little slow to get going. However, it is the puzzle solving gameplay that is the highlight of this title. The puzzles feel unique and very creative and will cause you to flex your problem solving muscles.
EA Sports FC 24 is exactly what you would expect from EA's yearly footballing simulator. There are a few new mechanics to enjoy, with some of them being more useful than others. Player career has seen a slight upgrade with the new contract objectives. However, outside of this there aren't any substantial changes and Ultimate Team is still great fun, for those that enjoy that side of FC. This is yet another solid entry in EA's yearly football sim, and proves that EA don't need FIFA's license to draw players in.
Starfield is a fun adventure that may just lack a bit of direction. The narrative is not exactly intriguing. However, Starfield throws a metric tonne of interesting side quests which will easily distract you from the meagre main plot. Combat is very reminiscent of the fallout series, with the gunplay in particular feeling pretty satisfying. The ship battles are also quite simple and avoid unnecessary systems which is ideal for this style of game. Whilst there are a few bugs, because after all this is a Bethesda game, thankfully they are minor and non intrusive, and often quite hilarious. Overall, Starfield is an entertaining sandbox that will give you hours upon hours of fun. I just hope you don’t mind sitting through (or skipping) the generic dialogue throughout the main quests.
Scars above is a fascinating third-person sci-fi adventure. It features an intriguing narrative that starts out a little slow, but it does quickly pick up and becomes one of its biggest strengths. The gameplay is a lot of fun, but doesn’t do anything particularly innovative to stand out from other similar titles. The game features some aesthetically pleasing environments, as well some really uniquely creature designs but the characters lack polish with the mouth movements in particular making them look a little like puppets at times.
Wanted: Dead is a fun, but challenging adventure. It brings together brutal swordsmanship and deadly third person shooting in one uniquely packaged experience. The combat is easy to understand and it does feel great, and its difficulty is definitely the drawcard here. Unfortunately, the combat can feel a little too simple at times and the level design can seem slightly same-y. The story feels tacked on, and most of the voice acting is B movie levels of terrible. Overall, Wanted: Dead is quite entertaining and will give you a good few hours of challenging gameplay.