Expansive's Reviews
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is full of joy and an enjoyable experience whether you dip into it for ten minutes or ten hours. It reminds us how many incredible moments the Final Fantasy franchise has given us over the years and it encapsulates them beautifully in one package. Mechanically sound with wonderful content, this may yet prove to be among my favourite games this 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.
Metroid Prime Remastered is exactly everything I’d hoped it would be and more. The game is jaw-droppingly beautiful on Switch OLED, the Remaster has made the game feel as if it was always made for dual-stick support, and it plays so smoothly that it’ll be hard to ever look back at it on old hardware again. Without question, this is Nintendo treating their legacy products with the highest amount of love and respect. While we’ve seen them do some fantastic upgrades, this is up there with Mario All-Stars in terms of the effort put in and the quality put out.
Monster Hunter Rise feels right at home on PlayStation 5. Between the DualSense support, 3D Audio, and the stunning 4K visuals, it’s a source of amazement and wonder just how well a handheld game has translated to such powerful hardware. Despite the disappointment of missing Sunbreak here at launch, this is a vast, valuable and enjoyable package that suits your playstyle, whether it’s a mission here and there, or a week of intense hunting.
Fire Emblem Engage is another fantastic entry in the classic franchise on Nintendo Switch. It moves away from some of the mechanics Three Houses implemented and goes back to the ferocious, epic battles the series is known for. To a degree, this does come at expense of the story but it also puts interesting new mechanics and possibilities in the limelight which fans new and old will love in equal measure.
Persona 3 Portable is a game that, on one hand, has themes that haven’t aged well. On the other, it makes for a compelling adventure that still holds up well today. The combat feels repetitive and sometimes it feels like you’re on an endless loop with the floors, but a core Persona experience stil manages to shine through
One Piece Odyssey is the best One Piece game to date. It’s full of depth, substance, style, and even offers something different to the genre. Everything comes together in a well presented and structured end product that is surprisingly enjoyable from start to finish. 2023 has started with a big surprise and one that’s a perfect fit for this enduring world.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a refreshing delight. One you know went through rigorous stages of pitching and proposal and, at one point, may have been left on the cutting room floor. I am so glad this game has been made as it offers a fascinating insight into characters you know and some you may not. It tells a compelling tale that has room for humor and typical Marvel fun. Most of all, it has intriguing gameplay mechanics that evolve over time and individually suit one of the most impressive rosters we’ve seen in any Marvel title before. Midnight Suns is simply brilliant and a must play whether you love the franchise or just fancy a bit of strategic action.
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.
World of Warcraft Dragonflight is one of Blizzard’s best expansions to date. The areas are massive, completely content rich, and there’s so many optional things to see and do. Dragon riding is a game changer for this franchise, opening up World of Warcraft in even more interesting ways and the cinematic quality and overall polish is impressive for an eighteen year old game. Dungeons remain a bit of a question mark for me and I did have some early frustrations with the dragon riding, so I’m looking forward to presenting some final thoughts in the near future. But if you’re worried this expansion doesn’t live up to the hype or you don’t believe it’s possible to get drawn in by WoW again, this is the best the game has been since the early days.
New Joe & Mac – Caveman Ninja doesn’t match up to the charm of the original, despite the beautifully created art. The gameplay is often frustrating and unbalanced, new mechanics included make the experience unnecessarily hard, and it’s quite barren for its price tag. With enemy pathing and aggressiveness really over the top, and the remixed sounds barely audible, you might be better served sticking with the original despite the extensive support coming post-launch
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the revolution the franchise needs. Years of work has built up to this moment with an open world, flexibility in questing, and an interesting collection of monsters to gather and fight with. Multiplayer possibilities, with a renewed focus on matchups and fresh ways to fight ensure the foundations and cores of the series are as strong and intact as ever. But as well nuanced as it all is, performance, exploration restrictions and some aesthetic issues hold the game back from its full potential.
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.