Kotaku's Reviews
This isn’t a gimmick or reskin of XCOM. This is something great that stands on its own.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is not what I expected. It’s a grand, ambitious, beautiful experiment, a bold new take on a game that millions of people remember fondly. It sometimes feels shackled by the weight of two decades worth of expectations, but it handles those restraints with aplomb. I certainly can’t wait to see what’s next.
It takes last year’s Resident Evil 2 remake and hones it into something meaner and more intense. Embracing the chaos leads to an intense and confidently executed Resident Evil experience.
The ripping and tearing is as good as it has ever been.
Half-Life: Alyx reaches some astoundingly high heights while also managing to be both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good.
This sequel does enough to justify standing on its own merits, though, finding a cozy spot between its rival’s offerings. I’m normally always playing a game like this in my spare time, and I’m confident that this is the one I’ll be playing a lot more of through 2020.
I know this can’t last forever. But in the meantime, I’m going to absorb as much from my time here as possible in the hopes of taking at least a little bit of Aurora back with me.
With Will of the Wisps, the Ori series’ focus has widened. While some of the details have blurred in the process, the result is a game that’s much more expansive while even more magical and heart-wrenching than the original. That’s coming from someone who just spent 15 hours with a bug-riddled early review copy. I’m guessing it’s even better fixed.
Nioh 2 is a big improvement on an already impressive initial outing. With more weapons and powers, combat expands into something truly special, while the story holds more emotion and impact.
Warlords of New York isn’t The Division 3. But it does feel a lot like Division 2.5 or even 2.6. It’s a big step forward for the game, fixing problems that have been around since last year and giving players more to do and a better end game progression.
Granblue Fantasy Versus is a fantastic new fighting game that more than justifies its existence in an already overcrowded genre.
This is an authentic Space Channel 5 experience. The wacky situations, the charming dialogue, the classy dance moves, the signature sounds of the classic 1966 jazz anthem “Mexican Flyer”—it’s all here, and it’s as timeless an aesthetic as it was 20 years ago.
Journey to the Savage Planet knows it’s wacky and embraces that. In 2020 I need to smile more, and Savage Planet made me feel great, even if I was covered in goo.
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If there’s anything that Life Is Strange 2 wants to say, it’s that everyone in the world deserves dignity, happiness and love.
Its charm ultimately wins out in the end, but the finale is bittersweet. The pieces are set up for something grand but there’s a sense that most of our time was spent putting them into place for a climax that may never come. If it took this long for Shenmue III, why get our hopes up for Shenmue IV?
Arise is worth checking out if you’re in the mood for a game like Journey or Gris, or if you just want to explore a magical world while listening to an emotional soundtrack.
Taken as a whole, Jedi: Fallen Order brings a very familiar concept to the world of Star Wars video games: balance.
Unity of Command II shows that even in a genre as tried-and-tested as this, where so much has remained the same for so long, that there’s room for change that not only interesting, but exciting.
The magic of Pokémon is that it lets you tap into a sense of wonder that becomes more and more difficult to access as an adult. Sword and Shield do that more successfully than any Pokémon release has in years. It won’t be everything to everyone, and it will not make everyone happy. I’m not sure it needs to. It’s a portal to a new world.