Expansive's Reviews
Minecraft Legends is a welcome introduction to the world of real-time strategy but equally adds its own distinct spin on things with its iconic style of building and creating. While the game’s campaign is dynamic, robust and generous, and there is a long-term setup for regular content additions, this is a game that lives, breathes, and thrives on multiplayer. Thankfully, with its inclusion in GamePass, brand recognition and synchronization across all formats, community is something it will never have to worry about and will encourage for years to come.
Scars Above doesn’t rewrite the rule book, nor does it break any new ground, but it plays mostly well and remains enjoyable through to its end through combat variety, environments, movement and storytelling. Ropey graphics, bugs, light-feeling weapons, as well as frustrating sections, environments and some unfulfilled mechanics mean this also lacks the polish and quality to match up to other diamonds in the genre.
Wild Hearts is a franchise with potential and offers a refreshing take on a well-formed genre set in fuedal Japan. Between the more enjoyable combat and the Karakuri, Wild Hearts manages to stand apart from its competitors, but is sadly held back by poor performance and an offputting difficulty curve. Hopefully one that continues to evolve in the months ahead.
Lightfall is a step down in quality from the excellent Witch Queen, even though it is still a very entertaining expansion. The Strand system is one of the most interesting gameplay mechanics Bungie have added to the game with incredibly satisfying grappling and explosive power moves, but they overcomplicate things just slightly in later missions and lather it with a wafer-thin story that’s definitely holding back its big moments for the next year.
Deliver Us Mars is a sequel that doesn’t quite hit all the highs of its predecessor and never really pushes the genre forward in any new ways. Mechnical gripes aside, though, it has a meaningful, memorable story with a good, relevant message, enjoyable dialogue and a beautiful soundtrack that all compliment each other very nicely.
Swordship is definitely a tough game to love at times and it doesn’t go easy on the player from the word go, but if you manage to get through its early challenges, start unlocking better ships and items, the game really opens up and the creativity and quality begins to shine. That, sadly, can be quite a big ask for a game with such hyper-sensitive controls, regular insta-deaths, and enemy frequency and brutality.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor: Martyr is a mixed bag as a looter shooter with some unique takes on missions and narrative progression. It does suffer from repetition and its grindy nature, however, and despite this being a ‘next-gen’ upgrade, the game sadly still struggles with performance and frame rate problems that plagued it on last gen.
Soulstice is like the greatest hits of the genre splashed into one. It never does anything over and above but it’s a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable romp, despite some of its technical shortcomings.
Steel Rising isn’t entirely a triumph. The narrative and the way it’s executed, the way you develop your character and its approach at something different is hugely commendable, but as a soulslike the timing feels off, the environment tends to get in your way and sadly it comes across being a bit dull. A real mixed bag.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is a perfectly fine kart racer that goes someway to filling that Mario Kart shaped void on multi-platforms. Its performance, handling and general sense of feeling repetitive overtime, however, mean its not one you’ll be playing over the long term.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is the best Ghostbusters release in years. The way it handles and plays, the respect it shows the source material, the way it marries up into recent canon and the gameplay asymmetric hook itself is actually quite enjoyable. While content is a bit thin on the ground and the bot AI is a bit lackluster, I’m excited to see how the game continues to grow and what else Illfonic have in the works. Get a group of friends together and dive in, it’s one of the most refreshing multiplayer takes you’ll see this year.
Star Trek: Prodigy Supernova has an enjoyable gameplay loop that, undoubtedly, is best enjoyed in local co-op and played with a fan of the show. It doesn’t break new ground in the platforming space and certainly isn’t among the best Star Trek games, but the story really befits the characters and the game stayed fresh enough to remain interesting over the long term.
Chasm: The Rift is a brutal challenge that is a perfect throwback to 90s First-Person Shooters. While ahead of some of its predecessors with its mechanics and gameplay approach, control frustration, AI difficulty, and map confusion make this a hard one to love and a tough sell for a modern generation.
Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed is a good gaming distraction. It handles its mechanics relatively well, has a decent flow, and this remake looks really great on modern formats with some stunning 4K shine. Much like its predecessor, however, it is beginning to show its age, struggling with performance and crashes as well as dated humour, and so the hope remains for an all-new entry that really shows off the potential of the franchise on current-gen hardware.
Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a fine party game that offers a nice alternative to other Nintendo properties, uses the Kirby license well and is at a competitive price point to other indies that it borrows elements from. The variety is limited, and the games are quite repetitive, so it’s not of the same caliber and quality of other party games but what Dream Buffet does, it does very well.