As a straight-up shooter, Exoprimal comes with competent mechanics and polish, even if a feeling of sameness ends up as the predominant factor after a few hours of play. There’s something here to spark interest among the most competitive players, but it doesn’t feel like Exoprimal is a multiplayer game made for the ages, same as the creatures that were brought from the past to serve as the enemies in here.
Ride 5 is an exhilarating ride, forgive the redundancy, once again a terrific motorcycle racing game for experts who are ready to throw away all the riding aids and dive deep into the raw and unforgiving experience. Casuals and arcade enthusiasts will have a difficult time finding the right spot to enjoy it and may not be pleased with the middle ground that it offers. Skilled players, on the other hand, should seriously reflect if it’s worth purchasing the new release given the few major improvements. Those who give in are bound to enjoy the multiplayer thrills and expansive career events, but be wary of the blatant AI limitations, still the weaker link in otherwise exciting bike races.
For reasons surely tied to design and layout, Gunbrella doesn’t always feature a fully scrolling map, being instead divided into some small sections where you must reach the edge of the screen to move to the next area, and segments where the screen smoothly moves along according to your character, such as one very hectic train ride. The latter makes for the best experience of all and makes me wish that the whole adventure would focus wholeheartedly on this approach. If we’re nitpicking, it’s also annoying that when a conversation topic starts, we can’t exit it and are forced to click our way out of this repeat dialogue until it ends. The sporadic jazz tunes add to this noir flavor and may not be to everyone’s taste, but there are other frenzied tracks coming into play with boss fights and varied key moments, so it evens out in the end.
If you’re not a die-hard fan of the series, waiting for the server issues to be fully resolved is the best step to take right now. When that is in the past, you may dive into these initially confusing but eventually rewarding heists, knowing that the Infamy system is a stone in your shoe, but cooperating with other like-minded players is an offer you may not want to refuse…in due time.
With a playtime that deserves all praise, easily clocking in at over 20 hours if you don’t rush through it, Alan Wake 2 is absolutely worth the time and money. It’s a remarkable achievement that is meant to be both devoured and enjoyed slowly, despite what this sounds like, plunging into all the details, exploring every beat of the locations without rushing through the main goals, as to appreciate the colossal work that has gone into it. This is a terrific television series gone videogame, with a sophisticated plot that grips every fan of survival horror and never lets go. The fantastic looks help, but the perfect pacing and intriguing mysteries keep you going despite some frustration that may arise from the Angel Lamp puzzles. It’s one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, this shouldn’t be skipped. A fantastic example of how different types of media can crossover and create a very special outcome, it was absolutely worth the wait for Alan Wake to come up with a plan to escape the Dark Place and write an outstanding story about it for us to read, watch, play, and above all, enjoy.
If you’re a fan of slow-paced, story-driven games, this is a good place to be, with robots small and large, friend and foe waiting for your arrival, and quite a few landscapes to explore and instill a certain sense of dread, even if the layout design is excessively on the inflexible side. The Invincible may not mark a leap for the genre, but it is a well-rounded and interesting step for walking simulators.
When your dwarf is filled with joy and bursts into singing while mining, a little of The Lord of the Rings atmosphere springs to life. Exploring some areas without any care in the world is another moment when the game feels enticing and hints at the sandbox gameplay that could have been. But suddenly, you are reminded that the whole place is a procedurally generated mess with barely any memorable locations, combat is dull and flawed, mining is extremely limited, and the repetitive walks to the base with the goal of storing your recent loot become tiresome. Return to Moria is one for diehard fans only, and even those have to consider just how passionate they are about dwarves and survival in dark places.
More than an attempt to cash in on the growing popularity of a series that started out in a somewhat niche way, Risk of Rain Returns is a welcomed remake that offers enough quality-of-life improvements and new content to be relevant and appealing to both fans and newcomers to the action roguelike genre. It plays great, has enough content and diversity to keep you entranced for weeks, and the new additions might just be what the game needed to appeal to a crowd that wasn’t attracted by the original. While not perfect, it’s a blasted good time where every frustrating death is nothing but an invitation to another run with renewed confidence.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a mesmerizing journey into a place that is very much unlike anything out there. It’s fantasy and technology boldly clashing and offering a sprawling, remarkable world that deserves all sorts of acclaim. The more you explore, the more you realize just how amazing this planet is, the windy peaks making for some jaw-dropping vistas, the parkour navigation and Ikran flying a contrast that ironically couldn’t work any better.
Like a Dragon Gaiden is a solid and quite unexpected addition to the franchise, filling in the gaps and giving fans more to muse over before embarking on the next chapter, of which you have a demo available in this game. It’s a worthy companion to past games, bolstered by a substantial narrative focus and combat that remains gripping and fun, although the Agent style may be more of a bullet point than an actual absorbing addition.