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When you consider that Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden came out of nowhere, the insanely polished tactics gameplay and charming characters are absolutely remarkable. If you're looking for a darkly charming way to burn hours over the holidays, look no further than this apocalyptic hellscape. Who knew that the end of civilization as we know it could be so damn entertaining?
Arca's Path is at its best when it's giving the player long and curving paths to cruise along and at its worst when it forces you to be tediously meticulous along short narrow paths. I understand the need for these slower sections in order to present the player with a challenge, but there aren't enough of those purely fun rewarding portions to make up for the frustration. Beautifully designed and an interesting idea, Arca's Path rarely expands beyond the simplicity of its novelty in a meaningful enough way. It wasn't long before I wanted to untie my hands from behind my back and actually use a controller. I'm glad it exists simply to try things outside of the box in VR, but this is a building block, not a definer.
So here Jagged Alliance Rage is, splashing around in the now dormant waters of that fountain of youth. It doesn't have scope to be the successor to JA2 that much of the Internet seems to want. It also lacks the execution and originality necessary to be the beginnings of a new generation of the long-running franchise. Any charm Rage! has is hidden under thick and ugly jungle, and undermined by its weak execution and a narrative that is at its best boring. Save yourself the rage, and look elsewhere.
Gungrave VR is a generic shooter wrapped in the new-tech allure of VR. For fans of the 16-year-old PS2 series, this will no doubt bring up some nostalgic feelings. But the incredibly small amount of content on offer will turn off most gamers looking for a fuller experience. The launch price of $29.99 isn't doing the game any favors, either. This is an especially poor launch price when you consider that the last game launched at a $15 price point, and lasted at least five times longer. Only the most hardcore Gungrave fans may want to check out Gungrave VR at this time. Everyone else can afford to wait for a sale.
That's what Monster Boy's final hours feel like. They're a clunky conclusion clogging up an otherwise slimy sleek progression. Usually in Metroidvanias, your progress stops because you're missing something you need. In Monster Boy, progress slows because The Game Atelier and FDG Entertainment have given you far too much.
Even though it's unlikely to be something that keeps you enthralled for long, when you take into account the game's fairly low price tag, it's still worth a look if you like these kinds of puzzles. It's also worth it if you're the type who likes to hunt Platinum trophies. Once people start uploading solutions to the puzzles online, you could easily blast through them all within a couple of hours. It definitely won't take you much effort before you'd get to hear that sweet, addictive ping of a shiny new Platinum trophy.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that the next patch fixes this particularly nasty bug. Don't you worry. I reported pretty much every single one of these. My pain will hopefully be your gain.
Ultimately, Override: Mech City Brawl has high aims, but feels a bit clumsy in its execution. It wants to be both a big arena fighter with giant robots and destructible buildings, but it also has designs for real competition. There's even a story mode in there with stat-building, customization, and bonuses like a goofy co-op mode. There's a lot going on in terms of foundation, but not enough polish and care in the core of it, which makes actually playing Override: Mech City Brawl feel bland and same-y no matter what you're doing. Frankly, many of the modes outside of 1v1 competition do more to expose problems, when you'd think they'd mask them. I appreciate that this game is making a callback to a genre that has been missing in action for a long time, but instead of embracing what that means, it tries to hard to make it fit inside a contemporary box. And that box is far too small for giant robots.
Big Crown: Showdown is a safe bet for party games to play that most people will enjoy. A large variety of maps helps to avoid tedium, but the core gameplay mechanics may be a bit too simple to sink into for much more than an hour at a time. There's nothing wrong with this, and Big Crown: Showdown is perfect for playing with friends, family, and frenemies, especially those who don't play games very often.
Just Cause 4 is just a better Just Cause 3, and that's not a bad thing, but it feels that many elements were added just 'cause rather than seeking to revolutionize Rico Rodriguez's many revolutions. New weather elements hardly play into the moment to moment gameplay, even if they make for some pretty epic moments during a few campaign missions. It's a physics playground of the highest order, but rarely does enough with the clever mechanics in it's repetitive mission structure, whether it's the bland challenges scattered on the map or the increasingly dull and overly long Region Strikes. Just Cause 4 has some great ideas, massive explosions, and much needed improvements over the last game, but it can't quite step out of the shadow of its own idea that pure and utter chaos should be the headliner, making the massive open world feel less compelling and more, well, just 'cause.
Earth Defense Force 5 is absolutely, thoroughly, another Earth Defense Force. If you know what that is, you know what you're in for. It's the first one built for modern hardware, which means more stuff happening on screen, but it's not an upheaval of the formula, nor is it a magical facelift.
All that said, though? The Last Remnant Remastered still gets my recommendation for JRPG fans. The game does something with its combat system that few had tried before or after, and it is a genuine joy once you've got the hang of it. When you strip away the below-average genre trappings, all that remains of The Last Remnant Remastered is a damn fine combat system that was clearly built before any other element of the game. Even after the hundredth time Rush yelled “let's kick some A!”, I still couldn't wait to figure out how best to pincer the enemy units and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
If you couldn't tell, I was blown away by Subnautica. What initially appeared to be a knee-high kiddie pool worth of depth, suddenly gives way to a literal ocean of gameplay opportunities. And while it has certain technical limitations, these are certainly not going to discourage the non-critic audience from at least dipping a toe in. It's easily one of the coolest, engaging, and most gratifying experiences I've had with a game in 2018. Come on in! The water's fine.
In short, Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics has some new ideas, but mostly retreads familiar territory. The game invokes unknowable forces beyond our comprehension. But, it does so with mechanics that are, by and large, known quantities. Who would have suspected that scaling the mountains of madness could be this rote?
One of my favorite things about Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 is that it's not shy about its appropriation of other video game franchises. There are Romans disguised in costumes giving nods to franchises like Super Mario, Pac-Man, and Rayman. Take a few minutes to look around when you reach new areas and see what Easter eggs you can spot. The game has also made sure to match the humor of the comic series. The awful puns, roast boar for health, Obelix's complaints about being forbidden from drinking the magic potion. All of those nostalgic feelings came flooding back within minutes of starting the game. Like I'm ten again, sitting in my favorite chair with a stack of Asterix books from the library. It's most definitely a game built for the Asterix & Obelix fandom.
Rival Megagun is a fun, frantic bullet hell game with a unique competitive mechanic. The retro-inspired art style is pixel-perfect, which is paired with an equally retro soundtrack. Each character's campaign may be short at just a handful of levels apiece, but there are six characters, each with different weapons and strategies to employ. Online multiplayer support, plus various collectibles and unlocks only seal the deal. Retro fans should pick up Rival Megagun without hesitation.
RIDE 3 is the bike racing game to beat this generation. A much-improved presentation, with a focus on the thrill of the ride, comes alongside improved load times. With over 200 bikes, plenty of customization options that make a difference in bike performance, challenging opponents, realistic physics, and tweakable difficulty options, fans of the series, and motorcycle racing game fans in general, will be quite happy.
With so many choices left unexplored and far too many hidden items I have yet to discover, 11-11: Memories Retold is a replayable title with new experiences for me to discover. What if I don't send that picture to Julia and send this one instead? And where is that last card game I seem to have missed? It only took about four and a half hours for me to complete the game once. Surely I can spare another afternoon or two to bolster my trophy count and make some tough choices.
Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection is one of the best spin-offs I’ve ever played.
As much as it tried my patience at times, I definitely enjoyed my time with Bendy and the Ink Machine. What seemed to start as a side project is on the way to becoming a full-blown franchise, and there's enough narrative juice here to sustain it for sure. A little more time in the oven for whatever comes next will go a long way, and with the backing of Rooster Teeth Games, perhaps that's exactly what will happen. There's a lot more here than cartoon demons popping out at you from behind corners to make you scream on your Twitch stream, and it's that ambition that makes Bendy a worthwhile game for horror junkies.