Gaming-Village's Reviews
The Smurfs: Mission Blight is an entertaining linear 3D platformer with influences from Super Mario Sunshine but also many original ideas and solid level design. The technical implementation is rather unstable, however, and will undoubtedly spoil the fun for technically demanding players.
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Bunny Garden offers nice, undemanding entertainment. I happily conquered all three hearts.
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On balance, Boxes: Lost Fragments is a great representative of its subgenre. The sliding puzzles are fun and woven into a mysterious staging of the individual boxes. There's always a relaxing feeling when a switch has been activated and a new object is revealed. Or when a larger mechanism is set in motion, which awakens even more secrets.
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Civilization VII can be a lot of fun, but I’m going to put it aside for a year or so. I’m sure Firaxis will sort out many of the issues with updates – and that the game will then not only be even better, but also cheaper. My advice to anyone thinking of buying it: you’re better off waiting a bit longer. Civilization VII is good, but it’s going to be much better in the future.
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Dynasty Warriors Origins implements the familiar combat system excellently and expands upon it with duels and a greater emphasis on deliberate parrying and evasion. The tale of the Three Kingdoms is realized in rich detail with many iconic battles. Ziluan as a protagonist remains understated, yet his muteness and missing memory are well-executed. The other characters, in turn, possess all the more depth.
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Cuisineer serves up an entertaining dish combining the ingredients of a dungeon crawler and a restaurant simulation. Both are simple enough to accommodate groups of players who aren’t very familiar with either aspect.
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Boti: Byteland Overclocked is a somewhat slow jump & run with perhaps slightly too long levels, but which was designed with a lot of love and doesn't do much wrong gameplay-wise. However, the occasionally severe bugs, which especially demand a lot of repetition from the player, cloud the fun and can prove to be very frustrating. If these bugs are fixed, Boti, setting aside the quite stressful final boss, is a great game especially for newcomers to the genre; otherwise a frustration resistance is necessary that young players probably won't bring with them.
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Is Crystar a tear-jerker? Anyone who’s a bit of a softie will probably shed a tear or two during the story, but it doesn’t go over the top.
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At least Albatroz is a short experience—within about eight hours you’ve already seen most of what it has to offer, unless you accidentally spent the entire time walking in the wrong direction… I cannot recommend Albatroz, primarily due to its poor technical state. Rarely have I encountered such a rough implementation. Long loading times, bugs that obstruct progress, stuttering, and even complete freezes all contribute to a consistently negative experience.
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Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has the charm of a pixel RPG while playing fresh and modern. Exploration is fun at every moment, and thanks to quest markers and the memory feature, I never lose track. The remake is thus very well executed and offers just as much gaming fun for newcomers to the series as for Dragon Quest fans.
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Amanda the Adventurer 2 definitely has a distinctive core concept that I have not really seen in any other game—apart from its obvious predecessor. The “horror” could certainly be much more intense, and it would also be helpful if it were easier to get into the main gameplay experience more directly. Aside from that, however, this analog horror puzzle game already gets a lot right simply through its idea alone. I am hopeful that future entries will further refine and expand on this concept.
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Astral Blade is not a paragon of an excellent representative of the genre; for this, it lacks enemy variety and the fun is already over after approximately ten hours. But graphically it is beautiful and reminded me in places of Ori, without naturally reaching its class.
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Few games have so far managed to convince as convincingly in the virtual world a well-known game principle. Whether one is investigating, sneaking or fighting, everything simply feels so good that one feels, even if it sounds clichéd, simply like Batman.
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The Smurfs: Dreamland Adventure isn't merely significantly better than any Smurf game should ever be — it competes effortlessly across every field except difficulty with Sackboy's PlayStation 5 launch title. Anyone who enjoys linear 3D platformers should definitely give Dreamland Adventure a chance.
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[...] However, after a few levels, I was unfortunately left feeling disappointed. Whilst the simple levels do have their charm, after a while I find myself missing larger areas where I can give free rein to my destructive urges. I also miss more detailed views of the physics calculations so that I can make my weapons even more devastating.
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Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is, in my opinion, a timeless classic that has lost little of its charm content-wise. Although the entire visuals changed radically from pixels to drawings, the game lost none of its visual charm.
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The story and its settings are as spectacular as described above, and even if the complete endgame content doesn't sustain motivation long-term, you'll definitely get your money's worth from the campaign alone and trying out all the new activities and side quests.
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Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is a playful, lovingly designed 3D Jump & Run that sometimes gets a bit too lost in its own gimmicks and thereby loses comfort.
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Age of Mythology: Retold is, in my view, a fantastic time capsule of a genre that has become almost lost, especially among major publishers, even if the 22-year-old game still shows some minor flaws. Yet it never truly drew me in. While playing the missions, I often felt more like Sisyphus, endlessly rolling his boulder uphill again and again. Or like Tantalus, because all the mythology, monsters, and gods looked so enticing, yet never quite managed to fully satisfy me. This may sound harsh, but Age of Mythology: Retold and I—we were not great friends. I can recognize its qualities and its deeply layered systems, but I don’t truly feel them. On a personal level, this is probably the “worst” verdict I can give. Or, more simply, it is a genre game for fans of other genres.
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Astro Bot is a focused, idea-rich and carefully designed 3D Jump & Run that feels constantly fresh and energetic throughout the entire duration. With its clear emphasis on interaction and playfulness, Astro Bot sets a welcome accent to the majority of Sony's rather bombastic lineup, and according to my personal ideas of a video game, Astro Bot is not only a celebration of Sony's history [...]
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