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By keeping simplicity at its core, Monkey King: Hero Is Back offers an entertaining if somewhat mindless distraction to the blockbuster titles releasing around it. Sure, it's a little bit too short, the narrative isn't particularly gripping, and it looks like an early PS3 game, but that all falls by the wayside in the heat of battle. Thanks to fun brawling mechanics, Monkey King: Hero Is Back does just enough to deserve your attention.
The Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Pack offers incredible value for money, with hundreds of hours of role-playing game action spread across two main games and various expansions. While players unfamiliar with the series may find the presentation or the sometimes finicky navigation unappealing, the narrative remains compelling, the characters engaging, and the combat challenging. More than that, it's the first opportunity for console gamers to play two of the greatest RPGs of all time, and it shouldn't be skipped.
It's not perfect; load times are lengthy, text is painfully small, and there are some unusual graphical glitches here and there. However, Children of Morta is overall a great success, and manages to forge a unique identity.
There's imagination on show here, but right now, it's not something we can recommend.
Combat feels stiff and imprecise, but that feels like a mild quibble about such a consistently pleasing experience.
At its best, Frostpunk provides a tense, nail-biting experience like few others in the genre. It's not about building an empire, or creating a beautiful cityscape, but simply doing what you need to do to guide your people through what at first seems like insurmountable adversity. There's a few niggling issues, but the feeling you get from surviving the campaign is one of utter, unbridled joy, and it's that feeling more than any other why we have absolutely no qualms about recommending Frostpunk to you.
Despite running into one too many difficulty spikes, Indivisible successfully blends the RPG and Metroidvania genres into one stunning experience. Its plot may be simple and some characters bothersome, but the 2D platforming that bridges the gap between those narrative beats is a dream. Indivisible is a little bit too forgettable in a couple of aspects, but it makes up for that when the tough gets going.
Overall, Habroxia is a neat little arcade title with some cool ideas.
Concrete Genie is a warm, joyful experience that embraces creativity in a unique way. Painting your way through Denska is effortlessly fun, and the genies that help Ash through his adventure are delightful. While this main thrust of the game is well realised, combat feels like an afterthought, as it's stashed away right at the end. This and a couple of smaller issues hold the game back from greatness, but taken as a whole, this is definitely worth playing -- and pretty as a picture, too.
GRID is a very solid racing game that harkens back to the 2008 original in some important ways.
The problem is that while A Brave Plan has some neat ideas for this narrative-based adventure, they’re implemented poorly.
As an officially licensed instalment in a beloved franchise, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is still a resounding success ten years on. But as a third-person shooter with physics-based ghost capturing, it's a bit one-note. The atmosphere, design, and voice cast are perfect, but the combat peaks early and quickly become a bore. The main campaign is enjoyable enough that it's worth enduring the repetition, though.
While its campaign is enjoyable in the moment, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep never manages to truly shake the fact that we already went to the Moon five years ago. For better or worse, this is just more Destiny, and that's a positive for those enamoured with the franchise, but anyone who was hoping for a more dramatic overhaul of its core systems and mechanics will be left wanting. Bungie has huge plans for the future of Destiny 2, but Shadowkeep only delivers a small piece of that vision.
A clear improvement on the original, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a pleasant surprise. It struggles to balance difficulty, but the end result is a robust and compelling platformer. It feels much more cohesive than its older brother and, free from the need to play to nostalgia, gives the characters and the world a better identity. It isn't perfect, but it's certainly a step in the right direction for Playtonic Games.
Robust but bloated, Breakpoint is a mishmash that has its fun moments, but its identity is MIA.
NHL 20 sees Franchise mode take a welcome step forward, while other areas have either remained the same or actually gone backwards. The new commentary makes it clear that different does not mean better, and all the slick new animations in the world can't hide poor AI. We feel like a broken record saying this, but the NHL series is in sore need of a comprehensive revamp.
Tropico 6 is one of PlayStation 4's best strategy games, and also one of its most unique, putting you into the shoes of a dictator rather than the standard benevolent overseer that most of these titles offer. Taking your tropical island from shacks and farms to skyscrapers and space plans is a lot fun, and there's enough variety in map design and mission objectives to mean that you'll rarely feel like you're repeating the same beats. And honestly, the music really is pretty good.
Whether playing for the first time or picking it up for old time's sake, Castle Crashers is still capable of providing simple, senseless fun.
Code Vein is a stylish JRPG with an interesting combat system that just falls short in a few areas. Its inspirations are clearly worn on its sleeve, but it brings enough to the table to stand out on its own. This title has promise, and we think the developer could iron it out into a worthy franchise if it's given the chance to make future instalments.
Despite its short length, this is still very much a trip worth taking.