Wccftech's Reviews
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD still delivers its share of scintillating simian escapades, but aside from a visual spit shine, not much has been added to the game to keep it competitive with the many excellent 2D platformers that have hit the scene since 2010, including its own sequel. DK completionists and newbies looking for a surprisingly stiff "Nintendo hard" challenge will be happy with this package, but others might want to wait until the big ape has something truly new to beat his chest about.
Dynasty Warriors Origins provides a compact narrative from the Yellow Turban Rebellion up through the Battle of Chibi and the formation of the Three Kingdoms. While the amnesiac protagonist is about as interesting as a brick, his prowess to change the tide of battle is a true force to be reckoned with.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana was clearly designed to bring the remake of the third entry in the Falcom series to modern consoles, and in this regard, it fully succeeds. The game delivers a fast-paced, no-frills experience that remains engaging from start to finish, enhanced by new features, improved visuals and quality-of-life improvements. However, compared to more recent entries in the series, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is a more straightforward game with a relatively simple story and combat system, which may not appeal to those who were introduced to the series through its modern installments.
Infinity Nikki is a fantastic game, and you can play it while avoiding most of the gacha elements. It's a great gacha game that doesn't require you to pay any money to it to be able to succeed. It's a game full of whimsy, wonder, and most importantly dressing up and being able to customize Nikki to your liking, depending on the outfits you collect.
Forever Skies has a great, relaxing core gameplay loop. The atmospheres are vibrant, but still provide the feeling of desolation and complete loneliness. It's very easy to dive into, once you get past the laggy and broken cutscene at the beginning of the game. Overall, Forever Skies is a great experience, and significantly less overwhelming than other games in this genre.
Flint: Treasure of Oblivion is a game that undoubtedly required way more time in the oven. While its engaging story, captivating presentation, and the charismatic pirate captain James Flint pull players into the adventure early on, the experience is marred by a horrendous interface, clunky controls, poor tutorials, and the subpar execution of several mechanics. As a result, the game is hard to recommend except to the most dedicated tactical role-playing game enthusiasts willing to overlook its many glaring flaws.
The Thaumaturge is a touch underdeveloped and rough around the edges in some respects, but it delivers where it counts, serving up a unique, immersive world, affable cast of characters, and a satisfying amount of freedom to chart your own course. The Thaumaturge bodes well for the upcoming Fool's Theory remake of The Witcher, but it's no mere audition. This is a memorable RPG that casts a strong spell all its own.
Adapting the final explosive story arc of the original story, Fairy Tail 2 is a game that goes straight to the point, featuring charming characters and a well-crafted combat system that makes fighting the forces of the Alvarez Empire incredibly fun. The lack of any involving side activity, lackluster world design and very short length, however, limit the appeal of the experience only to fans of Hiro Mashima's works, as there simply isn't enough for those who are already in love with Fairy Tail to justify a purchase.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an excellent adventure/action game that features one of the best Indiana Jones stories, great level design that rewards exploration, and awesome ray traced visuals. This might just be the best game dedicated to Dr. Henry Walton we've ever seen.
There was nothing that stood out from the game, and the story didn't particularly grab me. The main selling point for me was the combat and dungeon-crawling, which was quite fun. However, Wayfinder still needs some work to give it that extra sparkle.
All three pillars of Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies are among the best they've been in years. While some players might lament the addition of Omnimovement to the gunfights, there's a dynamic feel to the new mechanics that make Call of Duty feel more like a personal action movie.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a worthy successor of the original in every regard, good and bad. The vision is the same: an uncompromising game that will often frustrate you, but also offers a unique experience that can hardly be found anywhere else. It's the classic example where the total is more than the mere sum of its parts. Bugs and balance issues are still very much an issue, but they shouldn't stand in your way of playing, especially if you're willing to wait a while for developers and modders to fix them. If you enjoy open world games and shooters and don't mind a challenge, there's no reason for you to pass up on this game.
Lego Horizon Adventures carries over a lot of the things previous Horizon games did well, offering lush visuals, a likable cast, and a wide range of robo dinos to take down. Unfortunately, not everything survived blockification, with an overly-simplified story, sometimes-unsatisfying core gameplay, bland level design, and an overall lack of content resulting in a Lego game that’s a few bricks shy of a load.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, while not the definitive edition that includes all of the previous side content, embodies the perfect version of Erdrick's adventure that both old and new fans can appreciate as if a brand new adventure from Yuji Horii.
While Life is Strange: Double Exposure was a lot of fun and had a lot of great moments between using her powers to swap between timelines to be a murder-mystery detective, conversations dragged on and significant choices being made didn't feel consequential at all. It's a great experience, with a lot of twists, but some of it feels a bit too drawn out at times.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership brings back one of the plumbers’ more underappreciated series, offering plenty of visual pizazz, an impressive array of inventive maps, and a solid amount of RPG depth. It’s not a perfect relaunch, as Brothership’s writing lacks the snap of the best entries in the series and some unfortunate padding results in a game that arguably overstays its welcome, but overall, those still on board the aging Good Ship Switch ought to find this a charming-enough twilight cruise.
Slitterhead is an experience that's fantastic in still shots or in story trailers but the actual gameplay becomes a muddled mess when the player is forced into repetitive chase and combat sequences.
From a visual standpoint, the game succeeds in providing many different biomes to explore as the party treks across Northern Thedas, fulfilling BioWare's promise to bring players to more locations than ever before. The environments generally look great, while the characters are a bit more of a hit-and-miss in that some are almost photorealistic and others look more stylized. In that regard, more uniformity would have been ideal.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a game with interesting ideas, looking to build on the success of the films, but falls flat with level design and certain mechanics breaking, rather than enhancing, immersion. With clear signs of what could have been really good, a few slips hold the game back.
As a remaster, Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered leaves something to be desired, offering minimal visual improvements, no graphics options on PC, and no gameplay enhancements. However, it's still a worthwhile purchase for fans of Suda51, Shinji Mikami, and third-person shooters., as the quality of the original experience still shines through, with its relentless pace, engaging story, memorable characters, and a dark humor that's hard to find in games today. Garcia Hotspur's war against Fleming to save Paula remains just as captivating now as it was in 2013.