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Dynasty Warriors: Origins undoubtedly delivers if you’re looking for a game that allows you to unleash your inner warrior while embracing a larger-than-life narrative. Just be prepared for the cyclic nature of its core gameplay—it’s a hack-and-slash that demands a tolerance for repetition, yet rewards you with adrenaline-pumping moments that are hard to rival.
After so many games, the Sniper Elite series is starting to languish and the next entry needs to show some marked improvement. For now, though, Sniper Elite: Resistance is another fun entry in one of AA gaming’s best champions.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a heart-warming game, a warm hug transformed into a delivery game packaged up in a cutesy wrapper. It’s the kind of game I can see appealing to a very specific crowd, the kind who are just looking for something cosy and cute, easy and fun.
Quite simply, I love Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. It is, quite possibly, my favourite game of the year or - at the very least - right up there.
Greeted with a muted cry of “Who asked for this?” upon its announcement, Lego Horizon Adventures has faced an uphill battle from the start. So I’m here to inform you that when the question was asked, Lego Horizon Adventures should have said, “Good point,” and stopped there.
I’m coming across as very harsh toward Kong: Survivor Instinct, so let me address that. You see, it’s not a truly bad game. I’ve played truly bad games and compared to those Survivor Instinct is like a sweet peck on the lips. But in some ways, it’s also worse than those terrible games because it’s boring. Horrible games and amazing games have something in common: they are interesting to experience. A truly god-awful game is at least interesting to pick apart and talk about in the same way that a great one is, too. But Kong: Survivor Instinct is just dull from start to finish. There’s nothing to talk about, from its non-existent story to its lifeless gameplay.
The Holy Gosh Darn uses its time-traveling gimmick to full-effect, crafting a multitude of fun puzzles within a world packed full of wacky characters, witty jokes and crude gags. But perhaps the best thing about the game is how it expands on the universe that Perfectly Paranormal is building. It’s said that God created man in his image, and once you’ve spent a while in Heaven and Hell it makes a lot of sense – the denizens of the Afterlife are a flawed bunch, and thus so are the humans.
Like a Stormtrooper it often misses its mark, but sometimes it surprises and nails the shot. The last third of the game is vastly superior and shows some great promise, while the smart skill system and many small improvements on Ubisoft’s open-world template all give me hope that the French publisher is willing to move away from its bloated, rote designs.
Like a flintlock pistol, the shots that Siege of Dawn fires don’t always hit the mark. Its combat is fun but simplistic, its world is beautiful and vast but has very little in and is largely static, its story is brimming with potential that it never fully taps into, and its platforming is too floaty. Each element it brings to the table needs a more fine tuning.
Despite its obvious shortcomings, it’s a fun time that would best be played by someone who jumps on for a few hours a week so that the game’s simplicity can remain charming rather than repetitive. I certainly can’t fault the developer’s ambition – there’s a lot of stuff packed into Kaku: The Ancient Seal, including some very cool ideas. I just think if the developers had taken a few things out and focused on a couple of their key ideas, Kaku could have been even better. Taken for what it is though, Kaku: The Ancient Seal is a charming ARPG with a strong Zelda vibe and a lot of heart.
Truthfully, if you’re even a passing fan of horror then Still Wakes the Deep doesn’t hit any beats you aren’t familiar with, right down to a nebulous ending that’s going to feel irritating to anyone who likes some solid answers. However, it executes all of those beats extremely well, delivering a tight, well-acted experience that doesn’t outstay its welcome. If you like a bit more freedom and favour gameplay over all else, it’s probably not for you, but otherwise, Still Wakes the Deep is creepy, immersive and delightful.
While Capes might be less Avengers and more West Coast Avengers in terms of its presentation and budget, underneath those plastic faces lies a really fun turn-based tactics game. The story may not reach the highs of comic book greatness but it’s still a decent time. It’s the gameplay where Capes shines though. Sometimes it can be a bit too heavy-handed with the enemy count, but when you’re in the middle of the fray punching bad guys off of ledges, powering up Ultimates and combining abilities, it’s a damn good time.
Set in an alternative version of 19th-century Russia, Indika is a thought-provoking tale of a nun slowly losing her faith as the devil whispers in her ear. It’s a darkly funny, emotional and often crazy look at religion that will keep you engrossed until the very end.
This review will likely read like I’m very negative toward Ereban: Shadow Legacy, so let me clarify: I think it’s fine. The trouble is that games that are just “fine” can be hard to talk about without coming across as being very negative. As a debut title from a new studio, Shadow Legacy is very competent in its design, and seems to derive a lot of inspiration from Aragami, even including a nice easter egg. But I also struggle to find anything exciting to talk about with it, and that may simply be because I’m not the best audience for it. Someone who hasn’t played many stealth games will probably enjoy it far more, as might an experienced sneaky bastard find its simplicity and easiness a nice change of pace.
Taken on its own merits, Swarm 2 is heaps of fun and an incredibly cool virtual reality experience. Swinging around like a gun-toting Spider-Man is immensely satisfying. As a sequel, I think it’s a little bit disappointing because the roguelike elements don’t add much, at least for myself. Others may find the emphasis on gradually building up power more enjoyable than I did.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a great example of why double-A gaming is so vital to the industry. Don’t Nod has conjured up an engaging, cool concept and poured a reasonable budget into it, resulting in a game that still looks beautiful without costing hundreds of millions of dollars. And in the end, I enjoyed it just as much as I’ve enjoyed numerous triple-A titles with triple the budget.
It’s clear that there’s a strong demand for a simple, fun co-op shooter and Helldivers 2 is exactly that. Whether you’re hanging out with a group of loyal friends or teaming up with random citizens of Super Earth, Helldivers 2 is a blast to play. Mowing down bugs in the name of democracy and dismantling socialist robots is immensely satisfying, as is calling down terrible rains of fire from your personal super destroyer. If a few other Helldivers happen to get caught up in the devastation, well, they knew what they were signing up for. Freedom must be achieved at all costs, and freedom is rarely this fun.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a pleasure to play and a welcome return for a series that has been dormant for far too long, even if it doesn’t have that much in common with its fully 3D ancestors. A weak story and a few pacing issues hold it back from breaking into the highest echelons of the Metroidvania genre and duking it out with the likes of Hollow Knight, but it’s pretty far up there and a fantastic way to kick off the year. It might even be in the top 10.
In the end, I'm not sure who Stargate: Timekeepers is for. It certainly isn't for anyone who isn't already intimately connected to Stargate, that much is sure. But at the same time, it's so loosely woven into the Stargate universe that it doesn't feel like it's for fans of the TV shows, either. As a huge Stargate nerd who went into this looking forward to finally seeing Stargate come back, I didn't get anything from Timekeepers. It doesn't tie in well with the existing lore, it doesn't expand the universe at all and it doesn't tell a meaningful Stargate story. That just leaves the gameplay, and in that area Stargate: Timekeepers is decent but forgettable, and vastly overshadowed.
There’s a lot I like about Sovereign Syndicate. I like how it steers away from combat in favour of dialogue and decisions. I like its characters and its world. But there are chunks of the game that don’t quite work for me, from the levelling and skill checks which feel disconnected from everything else, to the final chapters of the story that struggle to bring our heroes together in a satisfying way. When it’s all working right, the story is absorbing and the world is fascinating. When it isn’t working right, the text becomes hard to parse and the sensation that Sovereign Syndicate is more like a book with mild interaction floats back to the surface.