TrustedReviews
HomepageTrustedReviews's Reviews
While its cutesy aesthetic won't work for all, Portal Knights is a game that capitalises brilliantly on both its RPG and sandbox elements, elevating the merits of both. With seasonal events planned to keep players' attentions and an endless canvas to explore once you've completed the Story mode, this is a worthy challenger to Minecraft's throne.
A pleasant, but flawed, walk down gaming memory lane.
While it's reminiscent of Journey, The Wind Waker and Ico, RiME is so much more than a grab-bag of borrowed ideas. Combining art, craftsmanship, enigmatic storytelling and engaging gameplay, it does what the likes of Bound and ABZU couldn't: wrap a powerful experience inside a compelling game. I'm still working out whether RiME is a masterpiece and, if so, where it sits in the pantheon of greats – but one thing's for sure: if you love the games it's inspired by, you're going to love RiME as well.
It's an absolutely brilliant fighting game, and one with a tremendous wealth of modes and a tutorial that puts most of its peers to shame. It is, in many ways, the best 2D fighting game on the market right now, thanks to the way it explains every aspect of its gameplay in a practical manner.
For all Eugen's attempts to position Steel Division as an action-packed RTS, it's still a niche game aimed primarily at wargamers, where complex strategy and historical accuracy matter more than cinematic action beats. That's not a criticism. While it could do with an easier difficulty curve and some sensible streamlining, there's a place for a World War II strategy game where authenticity and detail count. If you think you can handle the workload, sign on up.
There are good ideas at work in Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days, but it's a shame that one of the most intense and shocking indie movies ever made has spawned a game that's neither. At its best, it's a tight, engaging twin-stick shooter with an element of strategy and a cool rewind mechanic, but it never manages to be anything more than that.
Injustice 2 is both a fantastic fighting game and a great use of the DC licence, too. You won't find much better in the genre on either the Xbox One or PS4.
Disgaea 5 Complete is a great role-playing game for the Nintendo Switch. JRPG fans have hundreds of potential hours of content to dig into here, all of which is brilliantly presented with imaginative, zany characters that seldom disappoint. And you can make your very own curry, who wouldn't love that?
Despite its strategic depth and craft, you can't help but feel that Fire Emblem has had its run on 3DS. This isn't a criticism per se, and it's more remarkable now than ever that the handheld console with a low-rent screen and barely any processing power is still able to churn out such deep and engrossing experiences. Intelligent Systems is likely looking to Nintendo Switch for its next big strategic adventure – but for now, Shadows of Valentia is great enough to warrant dusting off your indestructible little pocket toy for one last hurrah.
While other console Minecrafts have it beat on resolution and maximum map size, the Nintendo Switch Edition is the only version to give you all the authentic Minecraft goodness wherever and whenever you want to play.
I've loved this game since I was a child, and I've always felt that it was in need of only minimal tweaks to bring it up to date. And Ultra Street Fighter 2 is exactly that – familiar territory but with better graphics, plus a few nice-to-have but non-essential extras. My biggest concern are the controls, since the Switch clearly isn't built for fighting games. The Switch Pro controller is an effective fix, but it's expensive. If you don't already have one and invest in one just for this game, you're looking at £95 – which is quite steep for a game that's nearly 30 years old.
It looks good, plays well and hits all the classic Minecraft buttons, but with the bonus that your Minecraft addiction is a little easier to fit in with normal life. Throw in some of the best themed Minecraft content around and you have a must-have for Switch gamers, albeit not the absolutely best version of the game.
I had fun with my first run through Farpoint's single player and the experience in co-op is just as great. Again the blurriness in VR when aiming isn't ideal, but the core gameplay is so satisfying when shooting stuff I tend to overlook it, plus the AIM controller needs to be the new standard controller for any VR FPS games.
Dreamfall Chapters stays true to the adventure genre it embraced in 1999, but sticking to the same approach in 2017 means it feels a little past its prime.
Like Lords of the Fallen, The Surge is another rock-solid souls-a-like, losing a little of its predecessor's strong storytelling and atmosphere, but gaining from the change from fantasy to sci-fi and the ingenious mech smashing and harvesting upgrade system. It's not quite on the same level as the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne or Nioh, but that's more down to the lore and art style than the brilliant gameplay. If you like the sound of a gritty dystopian take on Dark Souls, The Surge is an easy game to recommend.
I thoroughly recommend Prey, particularly to those who even remotely enjoyed Dishonored or BioShock – there's plenty here that will attract attention. It's a great game.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 offers some of the most satisfying sniping you can imagine, but everything outside of that just feels too drab and lacklustre to truly make it standout.
I won't lie to you: Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is an acquired taste. It helps if you've acquired a taste for either Dragon Quest or the Warriors series previously, preferably both. That said, it's easily one of the most accessible and enjoyable games Omega Force has produced, and a real joy to play if you already know and love Dragon Quest.
Outlast 2 takes its original idea and builds on it very well to create a sequel that's straight up terrifying. A must for those who love nothing more than feeling the fear.
So, do you really want to splash out on an old-fashioned arcade puzzle game? Surprisingly, the answer might be yes. It's not much to look at but it's brilliant fun to play, particularly as a handheld solo game and TV-based party game on the Nintendo Switch. It has great single-player and multiplayer modes not to mention slick ranked and unranked online play, while the Adventure mode does a great job of keeping you entertained while stretching your skills. In fact, there's just one problem. At £20 on PS4 it's brilliant value, but at a stonking £35 on the Switch? I'd argue that it's still worth the money, but if it was selling for around the £20 mark there's be another half star on the score.