The Cube's Reviews
Around an hour and a half to two hours long, Realm of Shadows is quality vs quantity all around. Besides for some really obvious foreshadowing, minor technical gripes, and uneventful decision making, I’m really looking forward to how Telltale expands this universe, for the better or for worse.
Headlander isn’t a lost cause, yet Double Fine should have done a couple more reinventions on the drawing board before they let this one loose. The main idea is intriguing and might convince some dedicated players to go all the way through, but to anyone else it will be a drag with some laughter, but mostly tedium.
Bethesda genuinely surprised me with Vault Tec Workshop. While it doesn’t leave a good impression at first the massive amount of tools you can require is anything but constricting. In fact, it’s so good, that it might change the minds of those who originally wrote settlements off.
Overall solid game, but could use improvement.
You can call #KILLALLZOMBIES inferior in terms of name alone, but everything else it exceeds proficiently at. If anything, it's ambitious and amazing to see this amount of concepts and ideas pressed into something that could have so easily been screwed up. It's not always perfect, but there's a lot of fun to be had.
Among the Sleep is one of the better horror titles I've come across in recent memory. It's unique take doesn't take away any of the scares, and the plot doesn't overstay it's welcome and creates a collection of memorable scenarios. The same can't be said for the presentation, which is the one urgent issue of fixing.
Forza Horizon 3 offers many ways to customize its experience, catering to a number of play-styles and giving players the freedom to tweak systems until they’re left with something that they personally find satisfying. On the technical and mechanical level, Horizon 3 never fails to impress. It’s on the periphery of the game’s design where some questionable decisions threaten to get in the way of the fun. Nevertheless, with incredible production values and an emphasis on letting players find their own way, Playground Games has built what is comfortably one of the best open-world racing games since Burnout Paradise.
Mafia 3 is an unfortunate reminder that a game can truly excel in one area and still wind up disappointing. With confident storytelling and consistently fantastic performances, Mafia 3 effortlessly establishes a narrative that has you engaged from the get-go. Sadly, it's the ho-hum mission design and various technical oddities that will drag you out of the world time and time again.
Dishonored 2 mostly follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, and in doing so stumbles in a number of the same potholes. Yet, it doesn’t fail to deliver fun in the form of a visually arresting, moody romp that combines complex, interwoven levels with an emphasis on player choice. When it sticks to the formula set out by its fondly remembered older sibling, Dishonored 2 delights. Surprisingly, it’s where this sequel chooses to innovate that the experience loses some of its lustre.
A well-crafted yet predictable experience that invokes its inspiration with poise, Prey ultimately fails to carve out a meaningful identify of its own.
Promising and frustrating in equal measure, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice ultimately disappoints with rote puzzling, unexciting combat, and storytelling that fails to connect emotionally with its audience.