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Shiftlings is a fun little puzzle platformer with a novel mechanic that's pulled off pretty well. Unfortunately, some stages have confusing solutions and playing with a friend can be both laughter and rage-inducing, depending on your luck. Throw in the often times where a misstep means retreading through some annoying sections and you won't always have a good time.
Aaru's Awakening has a serious difficulty curve, but when you combine the twitch-based controls, the confusing art style or the camera zoom, you end up with an experience that, once completed, doesn't offer a feeling of joy or accomplishment. You just feel like you've finally completed a tedious task.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a fun and pretty innovative experience for both veteran fans and newcomers. Unfortunately, it's weighed down by some elements like the wonky camera, the fickle lock-on, the dumb companion AI, or the slightly repetitive combat. Even so, you'll find things to enjoy and taking a walk down Dragon Ball memory lane is always interesting.
Needless to say, if you liked the first installment, you're going to love The Book of Unwritten Tales 2. If you like adventure games in general, this is one you can't afford to miss.
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is great remake in terms of quality, remastering the original experience in a fantastic way. The original story still holds up, and while the gameplay may be a bit too hard for some newcomers, it's still rewarding, despite a few not-so-great aspects, like the sound effects.
Republique Remastered cannot simply be summed up by saying that this is how a PC port of a mobile game should be done, because the original material itself transcends the usual limits of tablet games, merely content to offer an experience that's similar but of a lesser quality when compared to console games.
Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is a good re-release of the original experience on the PS4. It manages to keep the trademark low barrier of entry and complexity, but it still offers plenty of depth for fighting game fans. Even if it advertises its DLC a lot, and the titillating physics aren't to everyone's taste, you can have a lot of fun with the new title.
The Homeworld Remastered Collection offers players access to two of the best space-based strategy titles ever created and allows them to do so on modern machines, with no worries about compatibility or other hardware problems, which means that the fan community should be grateful for the work Gearbox has put in.
Hand of Fate is an interesting game that will certainly appeal to those who want to see how the card-based approach could be expanded in meaningful ways in the coming years.
I have mixed feelings toward Randal's Monday, mainly due to the fact that it's not bad. It has a pretty interesting story to explore, but it's just bogged down in a ton of unneeded detail and contrived puzzle design.
Grow Home is fun and innovative experience that, unfortunately, gets weighed down by bugs with the climbing system, the iffy camera, and the repetitive audio effects. It's still a blast to play but it could've been much more.
#IDARB is a fun experience when it comes to local co-op play, offering enough wacky elements to keep its general premise as interesting as possible. Unfortunately, control issues, poor online matches, and a few other problems keep it from really impressing.
Evolve is a novel take on the cooperative and competitive multiplayer genre. The game is packed with interesting ideas but some work better than others. The fact that characters are locked at the beginning weighs it down by a wide margin and the erratic matchmaking also puts a damper on the whole thing.
Sunless Sea is a great video game and the team at Failbetter Games has clearly invested a lot of love and attention into its development.
Super Galaxy Squadron is a solid shoot'em up/bullet hell hybrid that manages to feel welcoming to newcomers but also challenging to veterans. The variety of ships, the great endless mode, and the interesting story campaign make its downsides fade away. What's more, all the proceeds go to the Child's Play charity, so you'll also do a good deed by buying it.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment isn't anything groundbreaking, but it's probably one of the best narrative-focused mystery games on the market. It's definitely a polished experience and may very well be the best Sherlock Holmes video game ever created, with a tense atmosphere, satisfying cases, and varied mini-games and puzzles.
Deathtrap is a fortunate tower defense / aRPG hybrid that checks all the requirements a game needs to stand out from other titles in the same genre. The amount of skills, powers, traps and towers allows for incredible levels of customization and strategies that players can employ in each scenario.
Game of Thrones Episode 2: The Lost Lords is a decent entry in Telltale's series, and while it takes the story to interesting directions, it still doesn't really pull off the whole presentation and still suffers from shoddy choices and poor visuals.
Apotheon seemed like a very promising game from its trailers, and now that it's out and I got the chance to play through it, I can finally justify liking it from the very beginning.
The first hour of Life Is Strange delivers a number of references suggesting that the development team at Dontnod aims to create an experience which can be compared to Catcher in the Rye or Twin Peaks in terms of core concepts.