Chalgyr's Game Room
HomepageChalgyr's Game Room's Reviews
Through the Woods nails creepy atmosphere and has an interesting story that draws on Norse mythology - something that gives it a unique feeling. However, sometimes finicky mechanics and some other rough edges dampen the experience and hold the game back from ever reaching its potential. That is a shame because Through the Woods presents several missed opportunities where the development team executed on some things very well, while other less effective aspects of the presentation hurt the experience as a whole.
Neither good nor inherently bad, Worlds of Magic: Planar Conquest occupies a comfortable place as an average game among the 4x strategy genre. There are some things to like about the title, but there is a noticeable lack of polish that holds the game back in the end.
Killing Floor 2 is the sequel to Tripwire Interactive's 2009 cult hit Killing Floor, which is actually a full release of the popular Unreal Tournament mod that debuted in 2004. With a long and relatively successful history, Tripwire took to the masses back in November 2016 by releasing Killing Floor 2 on Windows and PlayStation 4 platforms to favorable reviews (scoring around 75% on MetaCritic). Nearly a year later Killing Floor 2 has finally come to Xbox One and those of us that prefer Microsoft's home console for FPS games are finally able to join the fray… Unfortunately for us though, Killing Floor 2 feels a bit dead in the water, lifeless, and redundant given the abundance of far superior first person shooters available today.
The Huntsman: Winter's Curse has some interesting ideas, and I can appreciate that it blends RPG elements with a unique card battling system that compliment the visual novel-like story. None of these elements are particularly deep, but they are enjoyable enough to want to see the game through, even when a handful of smaller bugs do make it harder to complete the game properly.
Sub-par graphics, clunky execution and the namesake game mode being somewhat frustrating and dampening the fun obviously impact my final score. This makes it a hard game to recommend outside of those who truly bowling, or if you have a very patient child to satisfy. Unlockables and Challenge mode are the two main redeeming factors, in my opinion. However, Classic Exhibition can hold up on its own, if you can get past the frustration of those delays in button presses.
I really wanted to enjoy my time with Warhammer 40K Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition but some of the design choices just made it seem long and drawn out. Adding in killer load times, and sometimes it wasn’t worth reloading from a previous save but instead starting the mission over because you didn’t get out of the way of a missile turret fast enough.
With a planet in danger as an evil tyrant invades with his army at the press of a button, a duo from the Zheros squad is dispatched to protect it. Taking out the initial invading forces in the span of time equal to that of writing a Twitter post, it doesn't take long for even more of the invaders to be sent off in order to finish both the job and the duo that stands between liberation and subjugation.
When first firing up Super Dungeon Bros, I was immediately reminded of Gauntlet, one of my favorite old arcade games of all time. This looks like a more cartoonish, playful and possibly even more entertaining version of that formula. The problem is, once you strip away the charmingly cute exterior, Super Dungeon Bros is a decidedly average experience that does a few things right but has a few things wrong with it as well.
At the end of the day, Mighty No. 9 is simply an average game. That is not a terrible thing, it is not what I would call a bad game. Certainly the hype surrounding it helped to elevate expectations that it did not and probably could not have met, so tossing aside the Mega Man comparisons and taking Mighty No. 9 for what it is? You have a bland-looking game with some interesting mechanics that deliver some entertainment without doing anything to make itself a memorable experience. There are worse things than that, but there are also better.
Bomberman has seen its up and downs over the years, but the overall formula is still a popular one with a lot of players. Brawl seeks to capitalize on a lot of the same gameplay elements while adding a horror aesthetic. All in all, it is a competently made game, but not one that does enough to make it a more compelling play than the games that clearly inspired it.
Immortal: Unchained has a long way to go and though this may have been its full release, it really should still be in Beta as they tweak the engine to provide some semblance of the promised third-person shooter/hardcore action-RPG.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a love story to 90's JRPGs merged with one of the most recognizable names in comics, Joe Madureira. Based on "Joe Mad's" own Battle Chasers comic line, Nightwar is a gorgeous dungeon-diving affair with a story that is instantly familiar to old fans of the franchise. Unfortunately what would largely be a stunning and extremely approachable game with affable characters, excellent pacing, and tons of replayability due to its randomly-generated dungeon, is a hot mess of technical issues. Given another two or three months of QA testing and Battle Chasers: Nightwar would be a contender for best RPG of the year.
For me, Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four is a mixed bag with a ton of potential, but too many small issues that are impossible to completely overlook. I really liked the card evolution and deck building systems, I appreciated the quests, equipment and randomized nature of the stages, and the turn-based combat is generally satisfying. I just don’t like the difficulty spikes that are largely due to the uneven resource requirements and the rough control optimization. I have a feeling this would play better on PC with a mouse and a keyboard, but appreciate seeing games like this make their way to consoles, where I tend to play more. A bit of UI / control cleanup and better balance of resources would make Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four a much better overall title that is still worth a look – but be ready for a bit of frustration.
Swords of Gargantua is one of those games that feels like a missed opportunity. There is some solid potential to have an interesting story, but the narrative bits never really develop. I am a pretty easy sell on the idea of a VR melee combat game, and to its credit Swords of Gargantua handles pretty well the majority of the time, but there just is not much reason to continue playing after awhile. Progression is shallow and the gameplay really never develops in a meaningful way. Swords of Gargantua is a perfectly adequate game without a lot of incentive to keep coming back for more. It's a perfectly average VR experience, but I had hoped for a bit more.
So while a lot of the elements were there in order to create a stellar throwback RPG with nods to some rather great titles for their time, Eternity: The Last Unicorn missed that mark due to some of those design choices and the performance issues. With a bit more work and balancing though, as it’s never too late, Void Studios still have a chance to fix a good chunk of these issues and I would be more than glad to revisit this title once they do.
There is a fun game here in NBA Playgrounds, but this is by no means the best version of the game. The other issue is that the game is a little on the shallow side. It is a shame really, because there is a fun title to be had here, but issues hold it back and the end result is a merely average sports outing.
Syndrome looks the part, with quality visuals and an outstanding sound design. Unfortunately this is a case where the presentation belies a game that has loads of potential, but in the end winds up an average-at-best series of missed opportunities.
Despite its faults Riptide has some good things going for it: the animations are pretty good, the vehicle models look very attractive, and so indeed is the entire game. Heck, the game even manages to keep your attention for about an hour before mundane sets in. It's a good looking racer; I just wish it were nearly as good technically.
Sad as I am to say, NASCAR Heat Evolution is one to stay away from unless you are the most die-hardiest of NASCAR fans and are quite apologetic for its dismal online play, bizarre progression system (level up by unlocking tracks, and vice versa), and stale audio.
So while there are some good ideas behind Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards, I found that the console port may need a bit more work in order to better shine. With a comic book storytelling approach and a decent skill system for character customization, there’s plenty here that works well, but unfortunately the current visual presentation elements hold it back.