gameranx's Reviews
I have a love-hate relationship with Sword Art Online, and yet despite its faults I find it difficult to stop consuming. It's a light but fun franchise, which is the best way I can describe Hollow Fragment. If you're already a fan of the show, dungeon crawling and perfecting damage numbers, it's easy to forgive the game's sins for its vast, addicting content. If not, the moderately high asking price may be worth a pause.
I love it. Unrest is another indie that exposes the lie of AAA that says games need some physical skill element to be worthwhile. It gives us many layers to ponder with its narrative, wrapped in a package that feels culturally relevant even as it's firmly rooted in a past and culture that is not my own. That, my friends, is something worth experiencing.
Risen 3 is a large role-playing game you can pay money for, and it is functional and will occupy your time.
The Last of Us Remastered is the same game it was a year ago but it is worth playing again and if you never have experienced it before, you're in for something special. Perhaps it was the game of a generation, or perhaps that was merely marketing overhype, but either way, Naughty Dog created something mesmerising and brutal, amazing and grim, personal and grand in scope.
If the sort of effort that went into the visual and audio design of Sacred 3, went into the story and the characters, this is a game that could have been a game of the year contender. Unfortunately, these two areas were not enough to save Sacred 3 from mediocrity.
However, it's by no means a terrible game. There's a ridiculous amount of fun to be had with combat alone if you can look past these issues. There's even a co-op mode that will add some re-playability. Nonetheless, Larian Studios had plenty of ambition with this game, but just couldn't live up to the hype.
Born from a Ludum Dare scenario (an updated version of which has been included in the middle of the game) and spread into a full-length game, Gods Will Be Watching is far and away the most interesting game from 2014 thus far, and it wouldn't really be a stretch to call its design "pioneering." But the true joy, above its other admirable traits, comes from the emotional trauma and frustration it inflicts on the player. Accept no substitutes.
It's a difficult task to capture fully the experience of MMORPGs. The genre is predicated on tons of content intended to last players for months, if not years. It's made even more difficult when a game like WildStar comes along, content-rich and incredibly varied in its well-balanced features. That's why it is easy for me to recommend WildStar to new and old MMO fans alike, as well as to anyone looking to jump into their first MMO. The game literally has something for everyone and does everything incredibly well.
I cannot recommend Shovel Knight enough. Whether you played games during the NES-era or not, Shovel Knight is both a great introduction and re-imagining of 8-bit platformers.
And so it's a good try, Ubisoft Montpellier, but ultimately in your failure to commit to your high concept, Valiant Hearts is ultimately the same as every other pretty good game: flashes of brilliance countered by nonsense tropes that are inserted just because these are the things you do in video games.
Murdered: Soul Suspect didn't need to have the most original and compelling story out there to succeed. The greatest disappointment lies in how much it underutilized its potential to introduce brand new gameplay elements since it could have been Beyond: Two Souls meets L.A Noire.
That's by no means a bad thing; despite its similarity to its forebears, it's still a welcome escape from other city-building franchises, and is a deep enough experience to keep players engaged for quite some time. One can't help but feel like it's shackled by its presumably-slim budget, though, as its lack of radical improvements and its mediocre overall production value will make it a hard sell for people who were indifferent to previous Tropico games.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is a game for facing your fears and gunning them down. Thanks to great shooting mechanics and characters you care about, you'll want to do just that. The tightly scripted narrative works against replayability, and tedious boss battles bog down the action more so than any of the non-combat sections of the game, but otherwise the game is worth several run throughs. Wolfenstein: The New Order is a great game, and one of the best shooters I've played this year.
If you'd told me five years ago that a game of this scope, and this level of polish, would come out of a twelve-person indie studio, I'd have thought you were nuts…but here we are. Transistor is easily one of the best things I've played so far this year, and in a field of games made by hundred-person teams and with hundred-million-dollar budgets, that's an extraordinary feat.
In the end, I called Bound by Flame a "side-quest" because RPG aficionados could play this game to pass the time but it's not an essential experience for fans of the genre.
So while I do appreciate Daylight as an effective scare generator, its shelf life feels much shorter than Zombie Studios intended it to be.
Age of Wonders III is a game that excels at almost everything it set out to do. It has well executed turn-based strategy, beautiful freedom of choice and some really interesting, but definitely tried and familiar, tactical combat. It's major flaw is the clumsiness in easing you into the experience. The game almost seems set on alienating the player from the start, but if you if you stick with it, you might find a quite rewarding gem beyond.
Despite all I've said sound pretty down on the game, I do have a strange compulsion to continue rolling with it a while longer because I do enjoy exploring it. My impressions from the first week may not be so hot on it, but I don't hate it. Yet. I'll let you know if that changes.
The gist of Reaper of Souls is a good experience. It's more of stuff that keeps people coming back, but you'll have to trudge through dungeons for a few hours because there's another threat to all existence Tyrael says needs your attention before you can bathe in the cleansing waters of the main attraction, which is Adventure Mode. You do what you gotta do, I guess.
Titanfall is a shot of adrenaline. It constantly presents you with awesome scenarios thanks to its speed, freedom of movement and accessible content. I can't count the times I whooped and hollered in delight. Win or lose, I was having fun. That's not something I can easily say for its competition. But it also feels a little bare bones, missing some content we normally expect from such games. Regardless, if you're looking for your next competitive shooter, Titanfall deserves your attention.