AusGamers's Reviews
There may not be much actual "game" in Broken Age Act 1, but as a window into two interesting and charming adventures it easily fulfills the Kickstarter promise. The presentation is beautiful and unique, as are the settings and characters. The puzzles are the weakest parts, with a stripped-back interface that offers little beyond combining things and using them on people and specific spots.
If it were titled The Banner Saga: Chapter 1, then there'd be no argument worth mentioning in relation to its length or aspirational goals, and at this stage I can only assume that there is a new Banner Saga game, or Chapter 2, in the works. If there isn't then the choice of buying and playing this great game would become as futile as the ones made within the game itself -- namely, a lot of people will get hurt.
Reactive hipoints on enemies would have been a much more "definitive" way to go here, but like the core story and animations, it's delivered in the same broken (or unrealistic) fashion as the 2013 release. Combat is the least fun in the game, but it's passable regardless. What's best to take away from this is you get the full game and all content released, updated visuals that actually make the game look next-gen, and that same rewarding sense of adventure and exploration coupled with Lara's personal, traumatic ascension to true Tomb Raider. Bring on the inevitable sequel, I say.
Smoke and Mirrors establishes that The Wolf Among Us will likely be worth seeing through, although whether it's worth doing so now or waiting for the season's end is a more open question than one might have anticipated at the end of the first episode. It ends on a cliffhanger, but not one with a whole lot of bite, and the 'next episode' preview reveals a third episode that revisits a lot of already familiar locations and story beats.
More intelligent enemies and less eye-rolling predictability would have made this one of my favourite videogame horror experiences.
Thief isn't a bad game, but it's not a good one either.
We just wish it felt more like a proper sequel and less like an expansion.
It's a tragedy to see Lords of Shadows 2 arrive in this form. Rather than focus on what made the first game so much fun, the designers seem to have totally misunderstood what gamers wanted from the sequel, and delivered something that was utterly alien to the first game.
Garden Warfare may not be the most ambitious game ever made, but its one with a clear sense of personality and identity, which is more than you can say for a lot of other online shooters.
The table setting seems to be all in place now for the feast still to come, and even at its most meandering The Walking Dead is still capable of telling an intriguing, frightening story about humanity's worst impulses.
Titanfall is a very good shooter, and I'm always a fan of any game that lets players use movement to separate themselves from the herd. Nevertheless, I feel like Respawn is simply setting the foundation here -- what they really want is for us to prepare for Titanfall 2.
If Hearthstone looks too static and boring or even too simplified and limited, you'll be hard pressed after playing the game to not want to spend more time in this wonderful off-shoot of the Warcraft universe.
The best way to sum up Reaper of Souls is to unfortunately badmouth the original release, as this is the definitive version of Diablo III, which makes the version we all played two years ago seem like a work-in-progress. Everything has been changed for the better, and when you factor in all the new content and the fantastic new Crusader class, you have what is arguably the best entry in the series. Or at the very least a worthy sequel to Diablo II, which after all, is what a lot fans wanted the first time around.
Despite the neat ending afforded by the epilogue, here's to hoping Sucker Punch will give Delsin a sequel that addresses some of the detractors of Second Son and builds on the awesome foundation it's laid down for the future of the series.
If you're after a new next-gen experience but can't see yourself moving past the main campaign, I'd say this is probably not for you, at least not unless you have money to burn. It's a terrific little package brimming with options to replay, but it's not a large play-space by any measure, and there's not a huge amount of variation on scenery or tone. This one boils down to preference.
In terms of narrative it's as dizzying, exhilarating, and divisive as the series has always been, arguably providing some of its most memorable sequences yet, and for fans it's something that not only has to be experienced, but savoured.
It's no longer something that is inspiring great enthusiasm or excitement from me, but it's also not something I feel the need to abandon midway through.
Under the surface, not enough has changed to the formula that separates The Elder Scrolls Online from existing free or established properties, and I would find it genuinely hard to recommend to anyone seeking an experience outside of a cosy, well presented, box.
If you want to focus just on the racing itself, there is always the challenge of chasing your online friends' times, but with such uninspired tracks I doubt we'll see quite the same buzz around Fusion as there was for Evolution. What we're left with is a product that relies more on promises and potential than what is actually playable. The tracks are boring, the tricks not worth bothering with, the attempt at storytelling laughable and far too much expectation rests in the audience to shape Fusion's potential.
There are the makings of a better game in here, and the combat is reliably entertaining throughout, but Child of Light never quite rises as high as its untethered protagonist.