Expansive's Reviews
Vampire Survivors seems like the most basic game ever and at first glance you’ll wonder how anyone could have it on their Best of lists. Five hours later, you’ll wonder if you’ll ever play another game again.
Syberia – The World Before is a wonderfully directed, well-flowing story that keeps you guessing and invested through developing mechanics, varied puzzle solving and well written characters. There are some minor performance issues but nothing that holds the adventure back from being a fitting, apt conclusion and the best installment in a series that began nearly 20 years ago.
Pentiment has unexpectedly shot towards the top of my favourite games of the year. It’s yet further proof of the amazing talent and creativity bubbling away in the Obsidian studios and is one of the best examples of a game that dares to be different by not trying to do everything, instead focusing its approach. Smartly written, beautifully drawn, and masterfully designed, Pentiment is an intelligent, humorous adventure that is as enriching as it is enjoyable.
Gungrave G.O.R.E does well enough with its gunplay and action, keeping itself suitably arcadey and enjoyable, and that’s when the game is at its best. But movement is annoyingly staggered, visuals are washed out and the varied mission types are usually misses, ending up frustrating pretty sharpish with unfair victory conditions.
Evil West has a fun, entertaining gameplay flow that is engineered very well, and moves along at a healthy, enjoyable pace, introducing mechanics gradually and smartly to keep everything feeling fresh. While the combat is first rate, it unfortunately gets bogged down by the game’s insistence on blocking everything into arenas, removing some of the dynamism. This is also coupled with some graphical issues. There’s a strong foundation for a very exciting future here, though, and I hope to see more from Evil West in the future with a game that fully explores the scope of this interesting new world Flying Wild Hog have built.
The Devil In Me has its faults with glitches, narrative hiccups and visual issues, but from a character, pacing, decision making and entertainment standpoint this is the best of The Dark Pictures Anthology so far and ends Season One with a suitable bloodthirsty, gripping finale that will leave you hungry for much more
Bloody Ties drops you right in at the deep end yet it keeps you waiting for the good bit until an hour or so in. When you do get there, the action stays fresh, different, and oftentimes interesting, and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and invested. It’s a nice mix of everything you’ve seen in Dying Light 2 already, not really pushing boundaries or doing anything new, but still justifying its value and adding even more content to a game already loaded with it.
Somerville isn’t perfect and does struggle to get some things right with its physics, puzzles, and interaction, but this is still one of the best-paced games I’ve played this year, with a story to match. With stunning visual effects, Somerville just oozes atmosphere and stands among the most interesting, engaging sci-fi epics in recent memory.
Bravery & Greed is an ambitious dungeon brawler that manages to land favourably on most of its concepts despite an incredibly high bar of difficulty. Epic boss battles, varied classes and creative card systems keep the experience feeling fresh, but while each run is intended to feel different, most do tend to see you fight a huge amount of enemies in one room so it can feel a bit grindy and dull at times.
Sonic Frontiers takes the Hedgehog in an exciting, fulfilling direction. The controls feel cohesive and coherent, the open zone concept is a smart game-changer, with the freedom of exploration coupled with a genuine feeling of enjoyment. It doesn’t always get its choices right, it doesn’t look as crisp as it could and there’s a few things holding it back from being the game it should be. Ultimately, though, the future of the franchise is looking less blurry and more bright!
God of War Ragnarök is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It’s visually enchanting, has world-class acting, is complete with a scintillating musical score, and pacing that puts it head and shoulders above everything else in the AAA space. This isn’t just the best God of War game ever made, it’s a generation-defining title that makes the best of PlayStation 5 and leads the line in terms of accessibility, care, attention to detail and quality. If you’ve been waiting for the game to justify your journey into the next generation, this is it!
Shootas, Blood and Teef is an unexpected delight at times. It’s not perfect, has some performance problems on Switch and is over in pretty short order, but there’s few better entry points into the Warhammer 40,000 world, and certainly not many that bring a smile to your face. The Orks are great and prove it in heavy rock-and-roller fashion.
Them’s Fightin’ Herds is one of the best surprise packages I’ve played this year. It’s a tight-fighting package, with an absolutely stunning art style and a decent range of modes. The roster is a bit too slight and there are some controller frustrations and rough difficulty spikes, but this is a smart genre hybrid that may just become your fighting mane.
Lucy Dreaming is among the best point and click adventures in a year that has been full of some brilliant ones. It starts out as a homage but it ends with its own identity and the promise of an all-new humorous franchise. Some tonal frustrations aside, this is definitely comfort food for adventure game purists and a must play!
Finding the Flowzone is a blast! Each track plays out like a skating rollercoaster, experimenting with the wind mechanic in smart ways. Across the five layers, the difficulty stays finely balanced, and the journey to Radlantis, for the most part is a good one. My favourite memories and moments in OlliOlli World came from this DLC.
Modern Warfare II holds its own amongst the very best Call of Duty campaigns. With stunning recreations of global environments, hard-hitting dialogue, and compelling action, you’ll find yourself swept up from the moment you boot up. Minor gripes and frustrations aside, you’ll also find it difficult to put down until the credits roll.
The Entropy Centre keeps players guessing and engaged with some surprisingly thrilling action sequences and well thought out puzzles. The narrative keeps you pressing on, the humour helps it somehow stay light in the most horrific circumstances, and it all comes together brilliantly in one package. Minor gripes aside, this is one of the best you’ll find in the genre since Portal 2 itself.
The Chant has some interesting ideas, looks great, and starts its premise out well, but it just deteriorates so quickly into a convoluted mess. Between frustrating combat and enemy designs, characters that aren’t given time to develop, and a story that never really settles into a groove, the game just never fulfils its promise or potential.
Bayonetta 3 is, in the words of Rodin, beautiful! It’s the sequel you’ve been waiting for, with some smart experimentation, clever gameplay evolutions, and variety for days that just keeps interest levels up throughout. Not every Verse works the way Platinum hoped, and through and through, this is very much a Bayonetta game so won’t be for everyone, but for the rest of us, you’ll revel in every facet and find this one of the most stunning games to put on your Switch OLED. It feels both strange and relieving to say Bayonetta 3 is finally here and it really was worth the wait.
Shadows of Rose is a safe Resident Evil experience that may be exactly what you’re looking for but doesn’t really take too many risks and, at times, can feel like a replay of Village. It doesn’t go in too deep on the character or move the story on significantly but it is a nice enough send off for the Winters family and it continues to set the tone for the future of the franchise. If you loved Village and are eager for every shred of Resident Evil story, this is a no brainer. I just hope we get to see more of Rose (and her powers) in the future