Cubed3's Reviews
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun II offers a fun, adrenaline-pumping excursion into the grim darkness of the far future. Once the beautifully rendered smoke clears, it becomes easy to see that beneath the glorious bloodshed lies a shooter that struggles to offer much beyond its basic premise. Encounters quickly become repetitive, levels are forgettable, and uneven balancing and uninspiring mechanics prevent it from reaching the upper echelons of the genre - and yet it manages to remain tons of fun despite all this. In conclusion: the bolter will roar, the Imperium’s enemies will turn into tasty paste, and the galaxy will once again be reminded of an Adeptus Astartes' thoughts on foreign policy.
At its core, One Piece: Grand Gourmet is an extremely niche title that will only appeal to two specific types of people: die-hard One Piece fans and fans of restaurant simulators. Anybody who fits into those categories will find countless hours of enjoyment with this cosy game, as it achieves everything it sets out to do, resulting in a surprisingly engaging experience that not only is brimming with content but also rewards players who are extremely knowledgeable about this long-running series. Despite a few minor technical issues (which will most likely be patched out soon), this is still a refreshing anime-based game that stands out from its competition.
Azure Striker Gunvolt Trilogy Enhanced is a love letter to the old-school game design philosophy of "less is more" replayability. The few levels in each of the three games hold up across multiple playthroughs without feeling dull or repetitive thanks to strong level design and solid gameplay. However, while this is an amazing handheld experience, its age and laser-focused handheld design show up in the worst ways on a big-screen TV: it feels busy and the graphics look a bit too blocky. However, this is definitely a title to recommend for those looking for a Switch 2 game to fill ten-minute gaps in their day-to-day life instead of doom scrolling online.
Playing Final Fantasy Resonance, one is repeatedly struck with the feeling of how much better the games it references are than this game. The sprites are absolutely awesome and the ‘job’ system is pretty cool, but that is about the limit of its good points. Combat is frequent, long, grindy and repetitive. The story goes nowhere, and it’s sad when the two-minute vignettes of the heroes from past games are far more interesting than the actual story taking place.
Final Fantasy Resonance is a perfect title for lovers of the series that have been there from the start, and for anyone who can appreciate turn-based battle, sound settings, beautiful soundtracks, and chocobos. Nostalgia may hit hard when acquiring Visions, and the harmony between gameplay and cutscenes keeps this title alive and vibrant throughout.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a pretty good fantasy RPG that excels through pure mechanical ambition. Capcom successfully delivers an unparalleled open-world sandbox defined by a spectacular, emergent and brilliant, highly interactive AI Pawn system that turns every journey into an unforgettable, unscripted adventure. It's fun as hell to scale massive mythical beasts in any game, but it falls just short of greatness due to lingering technical jank and an undercooked main narrative and quests that fail to live up to the spectacular gameplay.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen refreshes the gameplay by removing most of the old frustrating elements. The update expands active class skills from four to six, improving combat flexibility and enabling powerful new "Grand" ability combos. The wealth of new dungeons and the Norgan region is enough content for an entire game. Quality-of-life improvements, such as multiple save slots, an optimised hard mode, and the Eternal Ferrystone for fast travel, reduce backtracking while maintaining the best feature of the core game: exploration and adventuring. Overall, Dark Arisen balances accessibility with challenging gameplay, delivering a content-rich experience for both veterans and newcomers.
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus isn't the best metroidvania available, but it's one of the most unique and a solid games to consider for fans of the genre after the heavyweights like Hollow Knight and Ori are completed. Its striking artistic identity, enjoyable exploration, and generally well-balanced challenge make it an easy recommendation for experienced metroidvania fans willing to look beyond the genre's biggest names.
Spy Drops Gaiden is a competent and well made retro stealth action game. It's a bit of a lightweight compared to something like Ghost Babel, which was stuffed to the brim with content and interesting challenges, but it's also priced accordingly. The whole thing is over in a couple of hours and ends when things get interesting. With a solid foundation in place, adding more areas and puzzle-like environments could unlock great potential for similar games.
This score comes with a huge side-serving caveat that it requires a serious revision over time, personally speaking. One suspects it will climb its way up closer to 10, if not a 10 itself, if it is indeed what it deserves. The score here is arrived at chiefly for the level of commitment required to even begin to understand what is possible in Dwarf Fortress and more a reflection of one's own lack of intellect rather than a mark against the game.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is an easy recommendation for people who already like this kind of experience, but it could easily overwhelm newcomers. It has a great story and excellent combat, wrapped in a lot of things to learn, and it's not always the most digestible package. Long story short: if you think you’ll like it, you probably will.
Odd Town offers a distinctive visual style, a nice blend of silly and dark humour, and an interesting mystery wrapped in a compact French town. Unfortunately, the world isn't dynamic enough to turn the sandbox into a truly immersive experience, while the limited variety leaves little reason to keep playing once the novelty wears off. The story half fares better, but numerous parts of it walk a fine line between challenging and aggravating. There's a great idea here, and plenty of personality, but not quite enough depth or refinement to make it all work. It feels small and unfinished.
Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia takes some of the best elements from classic 2.5D platformers (like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Rayman Legends) and uses them to craft a wonderful experience that's filled to the brim with colorful environments, catchy music, fast-paced gameplay, and impeccable level design. Only a criminally short duration and some occasional clunky controls are its only real shortcomings. This is a game that everybody should try, from young children who are looking to get into gaming to die-hard fans of the platforming genre.
Just Dance: Decades of Hits works where it matters. At the end of the day it’s a fun workout game that allows for a lot of flexibility when it comes to the song choice. It has an annoying but ultimately unobtrusive way of asking you to spend more money, but if you find the main game is worth it, who's to say the extras aren’t worth it to you, too?
In isolation, Resident Evil 3 is a decent third-person action game with some monsters and excellent audio-visual design. However, Resident Evil 3 stands on the shoulders of a giant and fails to live up to its flawed but deserved legacy. It’s too short and speeds through parts that spark the imagination, often coming across more like it should have been a DLC scenario for the Resident Evil 2 remake. This should have been a great, unrelenting thrill ride. Instead, it’s merely an adequate distraction to complement the other RE Engine Resident Evil titles on the Nintendo Switch 2. A pointless side quest that lacks the gravitas of the original and mistakenly strips away its soul.
As a remake of one of the most renowned third-person shooter classics of all time, this remake of Resident Evil 4 doesn’t do too much different from what came before besides improved controls and gameplay scenarios, and a gorgeously detailed visual revamp. There are some changes to various bits of story that keep things fresh, and characters are more genuine than ever. Gyro controls are welcome, and extra modes like The Mercenaries extract more from the combat while delivering tons more replay value. It can feel overly familiar, but Resident Evil 4 has always been a blast to run through again, and it’s no different in this remake.
This is a stellar porting effort, and while it won't rock any boats, it is a great way to experience the Resident Evil 2 remake, which is an absolutely fantastic horror game. Somehow Capcom has found the magic "make our older games easy to port" button, and it's been marvellous so far. Though the game isn't perfect, it is pretty much a perfect portable rendition of the title. Recommended to all fans who missed out on this generation of modern Resident Evil titles.
Astra Hunter Zosma is one of the best free retro-style RPGs that can be found on Steam, with fast-paced battles, different themes for each dungeon portion, and strangely catchy music. It's worth the 10 or so hours to reach the top!
Hellraiser: Revival is one of the better movie tie-in games, almost on par with greats like Terminator: Resistance and RoboCop: Rogue City. Fans of Outlast and Resident Evil 7 will get their kicks with this one, but the Nintendo Switch 2 version is held back by egregious input delay. Revival stands out as the best Hellraiser media since the original movie, though as a game it has a few minor drawbacks: its overly linear, stop-and-go pacing. The rich world-building is engaging enough to entice newcomers to check out the first couple of films, adding depth that elevates the otherwise standard first-person gameplay.
Whether or not this sits at a firm 8/10 will be a real matter of what is being looked for. On the one hand, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition could be seen as a dated format that went out of the window as long ago as the rings themselves were forged. However, going in with the mindset of a simple, fun game with huge quality of life features added for maximum enjoyment, a lot of fun will be had here. Tolkien fans will lap up the book adjacent lore and hopefully with a successful release, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition will pave the way for some of the more well regarded classics to be tweaked and re-released.