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Overall, the game is quite fun, but the game feels very light with minimal narrative and dating-sim aspects. The bowling is good enough to have you play for a few matches or with other people, but the bowling fun only takes it so far. With that said, at $9.99 it hits that perfect sweet spot where even though it feels light, you’re not breaking the bank. I mean, it’s cheaper than bowling alley pizza and will leave you feeling more satisfied.
Firegirl: Hack ’n Splash Rescue is a gorgeous game, as the 2D sprites against 3D backdrops go really well together. The core gameplay of putting out fires and combating the various monsters is really fun, as is engaging with the metagame that drives the upgrades. But the repetition and lack of variety in the levels is very draining and tiresome. Future content patches could address these concerns, but until then I advise caution. Firegirl: Hack ’n Splash Rescue has a solid foundation, but the over-reliance on repetition and grinding is not as enjoyable as it should be.
What we’re left with in Into The Pit is a really great set of ingredients. The art direction and visuals are excellent, the music is perfect, and the core mechanics are really well designed. It is absolutely fun to play, no question about it. However, due to a lack of variety and challenge, the magic quickly fades, and I found myself wondering what this game could have been rather than being able to fully enjoy what’s on offer. In many ways it feels like not-quite-final draft that needs more fleshing out, and ironically what Into The Pit needs most is more depth. It’s a great set of ideas on paper, it’s a good romp for a few hours at least, and I like a lot of what’s going on with it, but Into The Pit leaves just a little bit too much on the table for me to feel completely satisfied.
Bright Memory: Infinite doesn’t overstay its welcome, but with a lengthy of only an hour and a half to see the credits, feels like it only just got started. And because of that, it still feels like a tech demo that should be something more – a criticism shared by its predecessor. It’s style over substance, but respectful of your time, and that’s hard to find. Bright Memory: Infinite is nothing short of impressive by FYQD-Studio, regardless of anything else. Bright Memory: Infinite’s ambition is never fully realized, but that doesn’t stop it from being a gorgeous, flashy, and entertaining game.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is not a bad game, but it feels halfhearted, with most of its heart poured into the campaign. It’s something that doesn’t live up to its potential, and could’ve been better. If you’re picking this one up, do it for the campaign and stay for the multiplayer to prepare for Warzone. The Zombies mode should be avoided until more content gets added to it in the coming months. We won’t know how Vanguard’s integration into Warzone will influence the battle royale until next month. As it stands, Call of Duty: Vanguard is good enough to get you through until next month where hopefully there’s a more to return for.
SkateBIRD offers a similar experience to other skating games out there. Even if it doesn’t compete technically with the likes of EA’s Skate or challenges the skill needed for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I still found it fun to play. SkateBIRD won’t replace your preferred skating game, but I think it’s a good, relaxing experience to try out. Plus, you get to play with birds, and what isn’t there to love about that?
Truth Quest is aimless, offering little motivation to drive this mystery home. The short runtime makes it easy to chew, however. It does recycle a lot of content from the base game alongside the new activities, though it isn’t quite enough to keep things exciting. But if more Maneater is what you’re after, then Truth Quest has that in spades. This DLC just lacks the charm of what made Maneater so special, yet it remains fitting for the tone of the game. Maneater: Truth Quest is an inessential add-on, but there’s enough interesting things to satiate most.
Twelve Minutes is a thought-provoking, intriguing puzzler. There’s a reliance on trial-and-error, even in purposeful repetition that felt painful to deal with. This resulted in reaching points of frustration often, which made the four or so hours feel that much longer. That said, I was compelled to see it through as each new discovery was made. As bizarre as it was, the ending has a swerve I didn’t see coming that I came to enjoy. The game is at its best when either the things you make a guess about or deduce, just work out, and your loop pushes things forward. If you can endure the obtuse design of its puzzles for the unraveling narrative, Twelve Minutes might just be worth playing.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a lot of fun whether solo, or with friends. It feels rather disjointed not having any cutscenes or meaningful threads for any of the campaigns. The crashes, bugs, and audio flatness get in the way of its overall enjoyment and longevity. Cold Iron Studios have post-launch content lined up, and so there’s promise of these issues being fixed and there being more to do in the near future. Aliens: Fireteam Elite lacks the connective tissue and spectacle that the films are known for, yet manages to provide entertainment for mindless, late-night sessions with friends.
I was hoping for more, but I can’t say I’m disappointed with what I got. SkyDrift Infinity doesn’t try to do anything more than it claims to be. It’s a fun-for-all ages game that will take several hours to see all the content, and many more hours in order to do everything that there is to offer. SkyDrift Infinity is wonderfully engaging and enjoyable spectacle, just not an essential purchase.
I want to love Stonefly. It has all of the right pieces to make something great. When those pieces come together, though, the fit isn’t quite right, and the resulting whole has its share of holes. This is a game that’s big on concept and playfulness, but translating those qualities into something that you interact with as a player fails to cleanly make the jump. Most specifically, the game play isn’t quite there; the mechanics are all fine, but the balance is off in some crucial ways that disrupt the experience and cause the game to get in the way of itself. Stonefly is at its best when its showing off its beautiful artwork and telling its story, and the parts in between where you fight lots of bugs and gather too many resources feel in opposition to that side of the experience rather than in service of it. I still enjoyed a lot of my time with Stonefly, but this feels like an experience that would have benefited from being shorter, and more focused on exploration and its narrative.
While I lauded the original Contracts for its promise and revitalization for the series, turned out to be short-lived. This is a good game, marred by outdated stealth design, a continued lack of manual saving, and frustrations solved by other games many times over. This is a game that’s meant to be replayed, and should despite some drawbacks and flaws CI Games has yet to address. It’s true that Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is a better game than its predecessor in every way, still providing thrills through a deep and rewarding sniping system enhanced by some impressive gore and ranges only real snipers have experienced, until now.
There are times where Siege Survival: Gloria Victis is clunky with its interface or systems, though it’s not enough to be a deterrent. It’s a game that lacks some polish, and could be cleaned up in patches. A lot of this game draws comparisons to This War of Mine, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just lacks the heart that game had. Siege Survival: Gloria Victis is lean on content and low on replayability, and without more scenarios available, makes it hard to recommend fully.
Perhaps the whole point of the Oddworld games is that they’re supposed to be difficult. Perhaps the fun is supposed to be derived from overcoming seemingly impossible odds, even if it means beating your head against the wall too many times to get there. Unfortunately, this kind of fun feels dated and cumbersome to me, which is particularly hard to rationalize against the backdrop of an otherwise loving and carefully crafted re-imagining of a beloved entry in a beloved series. I expect the die hard fans will enjoy Soulstorm a great deal, and I’m really happy for them that this game exists. Speaking as a longtime admirer of the series who was hoping to finally be won over completely, I’m still left waiting for that magic moment.
MotoGP 21 requires precision, and is not very welcoming to newcomers, even with tutorials and its easiest difficulty setting. There’s a commitment to learning the game’s systems to start to feel like you’re improving. Now, there’s some sharper textures, inclusion of HDR on PC, and other graphical improvements that look great; but nothing about the visuals or gameplay feels all that new, or next-generation. MotoGP 21 is a solid, competent, but ultimately stale racer that coasts with this year’s release.
Crash Dive 2 is not the most attractive game out there, but it does have its moments. What it lacks in visuals, is made-up with its depth in gameplay. While I enjoy most of the additions and improvements here, I personally prefer the first game — though I find them to be on-par with one another. Crash Dive 2‘s best feature is its approachability, blurring between arcade and simulation, streamlining the once dormant sub-genre in clever and interesting ways.
This re-release of Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse does make me wish it was a remake like Destroy All Humans! got last year. However, it being exactly how I remember and so little changed is some great nostalgia. It’s a fun, silly, and stupid game that doesn’t last too long — kind of perfect for 2021. It’s a budget priced title that is clearly aiming to gauge interest in a potential sequel, and I’m all for it. I had a blast going back to experience being a love-stricken zombie all over again.
Rainbow Studios has been known for some high-profile off-road titles in the past, Motocross Madness and ATV Off-Road Fury, to name drop a few, so you’d think who else would you leave an off-roading property too. Underneath the issues I had with this game, something is promising here, and it’s something I’d have confidence in Rainbow fleshing out. As I mentioned before, I enjoy the physics; the trucks feel good to drive. The worlds are cool to look at, but there’s not much of a reward for exploring. The career has good bits but is ultimately bland and is a giant slog, leaving a poor aftertaste. Maybe it’s the licensed nature of the beast here, but I’m confident Rainbow Studios can knock it out of the park. They just didn’t do it this time.
Stronghold: Warlords gets more right than it doesn’t. The unique East-Asian factions that this game provides is a much needed change from the medieval times we’re used to. It’s more RTS than fans of the series will bargain for, and the warlords system is interesting but has its fair share of issues. The game’s attractive pricing should sway anyone on the fence. Stronghold: Warlords is refreshing take on the Stronghold series, but doesn’t quite execute on its new ideas fully — it’s a bit outdated, but not antiquated.
It’s fair to say that RetroMania Wrestling achieves in making the sequel it wants to be by having the gameplay, pixel art, and sound that feels like it came from the SNES era for wrestling fans — albeit for those who follow more wrestling that isn’t WWE. The roster is shallow, and may not be what you want or expect, but it does have talent worthy of being here. The story mode is incomplete, and the flow of combat is often interrupted – these are the real problems. Yet, I can’t help but enjoy everything RetroMania Wrestling has to offer here, even though it doesn’t have staying power.