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While these limitations have the potential for forcing nail-biting compromises, the irritating micromanagement clashes with other elements that otherwise suggest a breezier game experience, like the rudimentary combat and the way the environment practically overflows with currency and crafting material. So much of The Wild at Heart elegantly sidesteps the usual pitfalls of a resource grind that it’s disheartening whenever it devolves into busywork.
Village is marked by a maturity that’s new to Resident Evil. Even when it steers us toward the traditional climax set inside a laboratory, the route feels more intimate and thoughtful than it ever has in a Resident Evil game. What elements Capcom doesn’t bring into Village from its predecessor, they’ve carefully replaced with a striking sense of emotional logic. Resident Evil, as a series, reinvented itself in Biohazard, and with Village it continues to grow up.
The more you learn about Selene across the game’s gripping campaign, the easier it is to relate to or, at least, agree with her observation that “I deserve to be here.” That line is also more than a little apt, as it perfectly sums up just how simultaneously rewarding and punishing it is to live in the world of Returnal. Each time you make a perfect jump and air-dash to avoid a cluster of bullets, you earn your way forward, and each time you awkwardly fall off a cliff or gawk as an explosive squid flies at you, you earn the right to try it all over again. The terse thrill of all that fragility makes this a timeless adventure well worth returning to.
The shotgun blast of gameplay types and tonal shifts isn’t quite as varied or seamlessly integrated as it is in Nier Automata, but it’s still impressive just how far ahead of the curve the original game actually was.
Judgment isn't quite so ready to put away childish things.
At its best, Outriders is a looter shooter that's surprisingly generous with its loot.
Poison Control rarely goes beyond the cheap laughs to be had from its story.
It Takes Two uses a smorgasbord of gameplay techniques to set us adrift in the field of couples therapy.
Mundaun's greatest achievement is the Swiss Alps setting that's brought to life with tangible vigor.
Loop Hero functions as a statement of persistence in the face of the seemingly insurmountable.
Strikers is still a well-earned vacation for our heroes, an emphatic, energetic punctuation mark to a much larger experience.
Bowser's Fury finds Nintendo again pushing the envelope of Super Mario Bros. in exciting directions.
At its best, the game sustains an effectively ominous atmosphere as it channels recognizable childhood fears.
The gameplay throughout isn't freighted with moral urgency, which is disappointing given the game's eco-terrorist themes.
The Medium is at its best whenever the player gets to lives up to the game's title.
Hitman 3, for better and worse, splits the difference between player freedom and focused storytelling.
To criticize Cyberpunk 2077 for being hypocritical and conservative feels almost beside the point.
The blandness of the gameplay might have been somewhat forgivable if the game's narrative didn't suffer from an identity crisis.
Along with being one of the most gentle and soothing games of the year, Haven is also gaming at its most compassionate.
It's an addictive, delightfully rowdy experience in spite of the creaky, decrypt gameplay and engine.