Expansive's Reviews
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
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.
Gunfire Reborn is a game ready to take the world by storm. As long as Duoyi Games keep it updated and relevant, listening closely to the community, this is one you could be playing for years to come and clocking up ungodly hours to. Slight balance tweaks and UI issues aside, get some mates and get involved.
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.
No More Heroes 3 will regularly leave you thinking ‘what the hell did I just play’ but it’s vibrant style, cool presentation and quality handling helps reassure it was worth the time. Unfortunately, barren open world, grindy objectives and rough visuals bring the experience down just a bit.
The Pinball Wizard is enjoyable for quick blasts and in-between action. It has an enjoyable progression based hook and paces itself well with increased difficulty and fun skillsets to unlock. Enemy and environment variety is limited, though, and from a content point of view the game could benefit with a bit more of everything to fill out the experience, especially to match the amount of skills you have on offer.
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.
If you loved Slime Rancher, this is a no-brainer. It’s more of the same, but bigger, better, and more varied.
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.