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Wargroove is the sort of game that brings back a feeling people had long forgot. Advance Wars has been absent for years and, while there were similar sorts of games like Tiny Metal, they didn’t quite capture the same magic. Wargroove does.
In many respects, this entry feels more akin to an Arkane game and not enough like the Wolfenstein experiences we've come to know and love. At the very least, the future is bright, especially if Soph and Jess come along for the ride. Their brilliantly written and performed sisterly banter somewhat makes up for this largely disjointed and underwhelming venture into the franchise's broader horizons.
DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation is great for fans of light novels, but especially for fans of the DATE A LIVE series.
Much like the anime that came before it, Kill la Kill: the Game is weird, wild, and loud, but also a bit shallow. But unlike the anime, the Game doesn’t have the same feeling of scale to it, the same feeling of unrestrained creators working with a healthy budget and top-tier industry names.
I really love Penn & Teller VR for what it was willing to do differently with a VR headset, something that no ordinary video game can replicate. The headset becomes a magician’s prop, and you the performer. But its welcome wears thin too quickly, its traps, tricks, and inner workings too easily revealed, and gimmicks too often expected. It’s just not the magic of video games that I was hoping for from two of magic’s greatest.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a pretty cool game. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is an awesome extension of it, adding features that further distills the game's core appeal and adds an entire new game of shockingly excellent storytelling in terms of scale and quality. I don't really know what happens between those two points yet, and I have a long road of Final Fantasy XIV ahead of me yet. But after my experiences so far in learning the game, experiencing its latest expansion, and seeing just how much I have left to see and do, well, I'm in it for the long haul.
That said, there's really something here to enjoy in They Are Billions. Taken as a whole, it is an entirely new and interesting take on genres that are as old as gaming. Billions has such great moments at times that it's rather surprising that these genres hadn't been smashed together already. Billions leaves plenty to be desired everywhere else though—in visual fidelity, art direction, sound design, and even game balance. Clearly, this is a first step on a new and mysterious frontier. Hopefully, not the last.
Sea of Solitude is an interactive story that has bits of a game peppered into it. Like gamey meat, it's not for everyone. Some players may want more to do than run around looking for seagulls and messages in bottles in between story moments and the occasional "fight" sequence. The story (which we have not spoiled here) is likely to resonate with many people, but for some it won't be enough to overcome a lack of fun gameplay to take players in between exposition. It is a worthy attempt, but just falls a bit short.
BonusXP has taken the hit Netflix series and crafted a fun, yet at times frustrating, pixelated adventure game. Some of the boss battles can really try your patience, and limits on recovery items (medkits and Coke) certainly don’t help matters as you push toward the final episode. On the flip side, there are all kinds of hidden areas to return to and explore further; even if I haven’t seen a percentage log, there’s just something about knowing you’ve 100% cleared a game.
With so much to do, fun, engaging play and a cute, lighthearted story that takes its time to breathe, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the best kind of sequel.
SolSeraph is a game that was made with good intentions and a lot of heart. The developers wanted to pay homage to a classic, but unfortunately missed the mark on almost all fronts. The platforming bits are frustrating with enemies coming out of no where to knock you off. The city-building parts never get deep enough to challenge you or force any decision other than stacking barracks and watchtowers along the roads. As someone who loves city-builders, I just wish it was a better game.
With all that being said the dense career mode, weekly online events, and the upcoming inclusion of the 2019 F2 season will have me coming back to this game long after the official F1 season is over.
Some issues hold me back from giving The Sinking City full marks, but I still recommend it. Whether you're a fan of Lovecraft, horror in general, or even a good old mystery, you may get a lot out of Frogware's latest. Just beware the call of Cthulhu.
Layers of Fear 2 excels in many aspects of psychological horror, but it also undermines itself. While it creates many layers of fear, there’s little connective tissue between them to make the narrative coherent enough to engage with.
Aside from some minor performance issues and localization typos barely worth mentioning, Bloodstained is an incredible feat in independent video game development. I’ll be coming back to this one for years to come.
While the visuals are well-drawn and the series’ trademark gamer humor is alive and well, everything about the way Super Neptunia RPG moves and feels to play is a real drag.
You can really see that the developer has tried hard to address the criticisms of the first game. The mini-games are a fun new addition to the combat system but don't totally eliminate the repetitive nature of the fights. The memorable cast of characters and kooky storyline helps to keep things fresh but ultimately this isn't too different from the first Citizens game.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a faithful remake of a classic karting game, with extra content from across the franchise to boot. Whether playing the respectfully challenging campaign mode to unlock all kinds of parts, stickers, and more, or skirmishing with strangers and friends both online and off, those who have fond memories of the original will get their money's worth out of the racer, without a doubt. The sliding mechanic still takes some getting used to after all these years, but it just wouldn't be CTR without it.
This is the Yakuza experience, but with a refreshing change of character, tone, and voice. Judgment has a familiar skeleton, but the flesh and blood housing it is new. Longtime Yakuza fans have a lot to look forward to here. But, admittedly, having a new setting, new characters, and new mechanics laid over top of the same framework dulls some of that “fresh” feeling.
World End Syndrome is such a beautiful visual novel and it expertly weaves its romance and mystery elements together to create a truly alluring adventure. It does a very good job at subverting your expectations but it's lengthy prologue may mean that some will switch off before the game reaches the really good bits.