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I often found myself willing to overlook all the obvious flaws in favor of engaging with what sits at Left Alive’s messy core, a sort of ultra hardcore, Metal Gear-looking-but-not-really, room escape-slash-solo-board game sort of deal that really got my brain juices flowing.
There's almost too much to love about Devil May Cry 5, and I'm so glad Capcom is continuing to deliver games of this quality.
In the end, there isn't much here that feels fully developed. While The Caligula Effect: Overdose has some interesting ideas, none of them really work. I suspect that after some time with The Go-Home Club, players will be longing to go home to the cozy comfort of a classic JRPG. Better to avoid this simulation from the start.
Hell Warders has a decent game hidden under its rough exterior.
Despite that, if you enjoy uncovering the truth of a mysterious story, and don't mind replaying a game to uncover the full story, you'll want to pick up a copy of The Occupation when it launches on March 5th for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One.
That said, if you manage to pull yourself out, the sleek veneer of Stellaris' bright stars fades more quickly than you might expect. Three years later, Stellaris is showing its age, and its rocky port to the controller certainly isn't helping its case. You could still argue that Stellaris is the best console-version of an RTS game and you'd probably have a good case, but that isn't exactly a high bar to clear.
It may have felt like an eternity since the last proper Dead or Alive title, but the sixth installment picks up right where the last left off and makes substantial steps towards propelling the brand forward. Enhanced approachability and single player modes help build upon a stable of already solid content.
I have no doubt that Anthem will dramatically improve over time, but right now, this flight should remain grounded.
I really wanted to like this game more than I do. It looks very pretty and there's a large range of weird and wonderful weapons to collect, but sadly that's about all it has going for it. The story is dull, the combat is bland, and it just feels really repetitive. Overall, it's not a very challenging game and is unlikely to hold your attention for long.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove feels like the sequel the creators of the original game always wanted to make. It's a follow-up to the original concept, which ended up lost in the weeds for every previous sequel attempt. It's a roguelike sort of game, but one that wants you to laugh and have fun instead of constantly dread what's around each corner. That remains distinct, even after all these years. This isn't the most elaborate or intense game in its space, but it's the happiest to be there.
That said, for the budget price, there could be room on your digital shelf for Blast Zone! Tournament. At its core, you can get mostly the same experience out of it. I don't know the reasons why you wouldn't just spring for the real thing, but I don't judge. So long as you are willing to get over the strange music and art choices, and can work around how they can adversely affect your play, you can absolutely get something from BZT.
The King's Bird has a lot of potential in both the challenging and the serene, but its tolerances for mistakes get just a little bit too tight. It wants to be two games. On the one side, there's an almost Journey-like indie with beautiful gameplay, audio, and visuals that calm the mind and soothe the soul. On the other, Serenity Forge wanted to create tough challenges that would feel like a triumph to overcome. While I was completely on board with the marriage of ideas at first, the two began to clash somewhere along the way as the trials no longer supported the gameplay. What Serenity Forge managed to do with the visuals and sound is on another level, but the loose gameplay mechanics never quite fit into how precise the challenges are designed to be. I wanted more of what The King's Bird was, and less of what it became.
Trials Rising is pure, unadulterated, arcade fun at its finest. The mechanics are simple, and indeed anyone can play. But mastering the techniques to get ever faster times can take countless hours. The extreme levels will really test players' resolve, but the payoff of finally finishing the Everest level, for instance, is worth the obstacle-filled journey. There's so much content packed into Trials Rising, it's hard to believe the game is launching at $24.99.
In a week where I had two puzzle-platformers land in my lap, Degrees of Separations comes out on the bottom. The entire time I was playing it, all I wanted to do was switch back to The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. Especially once I hit the third world in Degrees of Separation, where puzzle solving was no longer a fun challenge, but a grueling test of my patience. I wanted to love it; the art, the soundtrack, and the story were what had my heart set on enjoying while playing this one. I hate to say it, but I'm not sure if I'll ever attempt to put all the stars back in the sky.
ChromaGun VR feels like the form the game should have launched in from the start. The campaign is only a handful of hours, which is about the same amount of time most people can handle VR in its current state. The Aim Controller works quite well in this (mostly) non-violent puzzle shooter, even if lefties have to adapt to the control scheme. Still, an undo function could've saved players from some frustration when they either misfire or accidentally use the wrong color. ChromaGun VR is a funny, occasionally challenging first-person puzzler, and one that is enhanced in VR.
Those minor problems aside, Steins;Gate Elite is definitely the best way to get into this property. It has all the charm of the anime, all the narrative excellence of the original, and a refinement that hasn't existed in either up until this point. For new fans or veterans alike, Steins;Gate Elite is well worth the pick-up, and should represent a potential starting point for future visual novels looking to make a similar impact.
The visual novel side of the game is definitely the strongest part, and it’s a shame that the RPG sections aren’t quite as engrossing.
DiRT Rally 2.0 features some positively exhilarating racing. While there aren't a ton of different modes to choose from this time around, there are plenty of courses to make up for it. The lack of real-time multiplayer may dissuade some from purchasing it, as they can't directly compete with friends, but the asynchronous challenge events provide plenty of real-world competition on a daily and weekly basis. As usual, Codemasters knows rally racing like no one else.
Metro Exodus is an entertaining post-apocalyptic shooter that isn't afraid to take chances with the series' formula. There are still occasional jump scares, resources are scarce, and often times humans are your worst enemy. The addition of large, open levels really freed up 4A Games to make a world all the more detailed and believable. A few technical issues hold the game back a bit, but they are by no means a deal breaker. Fans of the Metro series shouldn't hesitate to pick up Metro Exodus at launch, and fans of survival horror should also find plenty to like here.
Far Cry New Dawn is definitely another Far Cry game, though the changes it makes to keep everything feeling fresh are intriguing. a very light RPG touch makes much of the typically repetitive content feel new with a difficulty curve that will challenge how people play. While it can be played independently, Far Cry 5 and New Dawn together create an interesting story package featuring some great twists, turns, and betrayals of the player (even if those pesky convenient macguffins keep coming into play). Coming less than a year after 5, New Dawn does retain some of the sins of its predecessor, but it still managed to make enough new inroads to keep me hooked until the end.