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The ultimate management strategy? So much more than Theme Hospital 2
An interesting concept is let down by some pretty glaring gameplay flaws.
Unless Blizzard has some real story shake-ups and a phenomenally tuned raid on the horizon, I'm honestly expecting the sharpest player decrease to set in within the next few months. The expansion itself has some interesting ideas, but sticking to a World Quest grindfest is quickly becoming the norm, and the Island Expeditions aren't exactly exciting.
Strange Brigade is tip-top fun with lots of bang for your buck, to use a dirty Americanism. A single offline campaign playthrough with a decent amount of exploration can run around 11 hours, and that's before you bring in the Co-op, Horde Mode, Score Attack, and secret hunting. Crucially, it's all incredibly fun, with entertaining shooting, a good level of challenge, hilarious traps and a good-natured atmosphere.
A capable 4X game that has an interesting (and complex) gameplay take on Ancient Rome.
Shenmue is incredible- All open world games should be this good. Players hoping for a little more action and less Forklift Operating should check out the Yakuza series.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown meets Mission: Impossible! But not as good as that pitch suggests
Capcom perfected the combat formula over countless releases, but it wasn't until Monster Hunter: World that they stripped away what ultimately was never much fun to begin with. You spend less time spent preparing, and more time actually fighting. And sales figures suggest, as we all expected, that Capcom really had something special sitting under all that bloat.
A quality prequel expansion that does for Rome II what Rise of the Samurai did for Shogun 2
A very promising concept let down by an unengaging execution.
A pretty and novel use of the 40K license, brought down by uninspired design and plain bad game balance.
If The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit cost a bit of money, we'd still highly recommend it. The fact that it's totally free means it's elevated to a must-play, even if you have no plans on playing Life Is Strange 2 - and if you're considering it, play this now. Any minor quibbles we might have, like some interactive points not being obvious, drop away when you remember that it's free.
There are a lot of people who will get a kick out of Prey: Mooncrash, and we respect this - and we realise and like that it's a different type of challenge to the main game. However, we loved Prey and Mooncrash just left us cold.
A good addition to a capable game.
I really hate tearing down games because nobody sets out to purposefully make a bad game and people put passion and effort into Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi, but not only does this game fail on its own merits, the fact that this is the 15th entry in an acclaimed series makes it even more disappointing. The way it tries to hide its lack of depth is almost insulting, and not even a decent character system can save it.
Jurassic World Evolution may not be the best theme park management game, but it's the most exciting dinosaur management game. And that's enough for us.
A pretty, yet ultimately unimpressive Action RPG.
A compelling story and premise bogged down by some bad design decisions
As it stands now, there is a lot to like for enthusiasts of the genre, but the game feels a tad threadbare. It is certainly the beginnings of something great, and should be nourished to reach its potential.
If you already own the Season Pass for Far Cry 5 give it a go, but we doubt you'd want to buy Hours of Darkness separately. Save your money for the far more fun sounding zombie and alien expansions.