Hardcore Gamer
HomepageHardcore Gamer's Reviews
Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies is a balanced multiplayer-exclusive outing based off an already excellent RTS game. The core gameplay remains as tight as ever, giving rise to a DLC that is worth its weight in salt.
Shovel Knight continues 2014's fantastic indie lineup, but its polish, creativity, beauty and charm might just make it the pick of the bunch. Yacht Club Games has delivered more than anyone ever could have hoped for, and created an experience that gamers young and old will thoroughly enjoy.
Resogun Heroes takes enough risks to be interesting, while not alienating those who've stuck with the game since launch. The two new modes have plenty of unique elements to be worth checking out, while still keeping your palms sweaty as you thread the needle through a swarm of ships.
While the UbiArt Framework logo at the beginning of the game should be a clear sign that Valiant Hearts is visually beautiful, its breathtaking, unforgettable narrative comes somewhat as a surprise. While its occasionally dull gameplay and noticeably low level of challenge prevent it from being a masterpiece, Valiant Hearts is one of best games a Ubisoft studio has created in recent history.
EA Sports has been developing their first UFC game for some time now and, while they have shown they know their material, it's unfortunately weighed down by shortcomings. On one hand, the mechanics are satisfying as timing counters and ground passes are down to precision.
Sixty Second Shooter Prime is a fantastic game to pick up and play, and as such, best situated on a portable platform. Players will be excited by the destruction and rapid action for few rounds, but besides ascending leaderboards, there is not much left to accomplish after that.
Munin is a successful addition to the genre and, few issues aside, a largely entertaining experience. All a game like this has to succeed in is being innovative and challenging, which Munin has by the bucket, but buyer beware: this is not your typical fun-time brain teaser.
All in all, Nether is a great time. It's a highly engaging and realized survival experience; something we need more of.
It's easy to see why Sony chose to give Entwined air-time during its conference, as it is absolutely exceptional. This is one of those games that players will go to time and time again due to its extensive replay value. Entwined has the potential to cheer up the heartbroken, enlighten the lonely, and reinvigorate the jaded.
Those willing to give 1001 Spikes a fair try will find that its mind-numbing challenge can lead to some incredibly satisfying moments. Its brilliantly crafted mechanics give players every opportunity to best the treacherous traps of Ukampa. Unfortunately, it's easy to see countless players quitting after a couple of levels, as its difficulty severely limits is accessibility.
A Story About My Uncle is an incredible game that is greater than the sum of its parts. The story is compelling despite some iffy English and similarly-problematic voice acting, while the graphics are impressive as a whole even with antiquated character models being used.
A combination of fun, fairness, beauty and joy, Mario Kart 8 is absolutely brilliant. A botched battle mode and some missing online features stop it short of perfection, but it's hard to imagine any Mario Kart game looking, playing, or sounding better.
While its concept is unique, its execution leaves an incredible amount to be desired. Unfortunately, the mystery of Ronan's murder is not nearly as thought-provoking as the mystery of when Murdered: Soul Suspect will be offered at a discount.
The strongest aspect of Richard & Alice is how it manages to tell an engaging story in a fairly compact amount of time. Although players start out as total strangers to the duo, they find themselves quickly interested by their plight.
The Fall is the beginning of an intelligent and engaging sci-fi story, one that'll keep you on the edge of your seat throughout every tricky brain teaser of a puzzle. With an excellent cast, a visceral, thought-provoking story and some great voice acting, the narrative has plenty of drive and it'll keep you guessing all the way to its tease of an ending.
There is some initial appeal in Squids Odyssey and its simplicity is mildly entertaining if played in bite sized sessions. Ultimately, however, both the strategy and RPG elements of this strategy RPG fall flat.
I don't regret playing Always Sometimes Monsters. It gave me a bit of perspective on what it's like to live without some of my privileges, and also gave me cause to think about who I am, what I value, and where my life has gone so far.
Treated like the Second Coming, Watch Dogs has arrived riding a tidal wave of hype and has turned out not to be a momentous event in gaming, but instead just a great game. In some ways, Ubisoft has done it a disservice by creating expectations it could never live up to, as this is a wholly entertaining experience on its own terms. The campaign is massive and full of enthralling missions, the voice acting and characterization (outside of Aiden) is impeccable and it's jam packed with enough content to keep gamers satisfied until Grand Theft Auto VI.
What Monochroma gets right, however, is tone and gameplay. The puzzle platforming is fun to solve once you get the feel for character movement, there's a lot of variety in puzzle design, and some very clever level layout ties everything together.
The crux of the problem with In Sheep's Clothing is that we're still not getting much in the way of payoff. A lot of questions are answered, sure, but the episode presents itself as one final buildup to the confrontation with The Crooked Man.