VG247's Reviews
It's been many years in the making, but can Gotham Knights meet expectations? Not really.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope delivered the most fun I’ve had in a Mario game or a Ubisoft game since Mario Odyssey, and is a game I’m going to keep going back to in a perhaps misguided attempt to polish off all the side missions. This really feels like the best of both worlds type experience, and is a triple-jump-sized leap over the original
Asobo should be proud of what it achieved in this game, as depressing and engrossing as it is.
In truth, Scorn doesn’t tell a particularly fascinating story, but it hardly matters; the way in which it’s told is done to perfection, and provides an incredibly refreshing horror experience that truly gets under your skin.
Scorn is an exercise in environmental storytelling, eschewing cutscenes and exposition in favour of simply letting the player piece things together for themselves. It doesn't provide all the answers, leaving much of its deeper meaning wide open to interpretation: and it's all the more compelling as a result.
But keeping things on the pitch, FIFA 23 is still utterly engrossing, wildly frustrating, uncannily realistic and very silly. It’s endlessly playable but, just like real football, the search for the perfect blueprint goes on.
Lego Bricktales is a breath of fresh air, and a tremendous surprise. It’s not the longest experience in the world – but I loved every minute of it, and still feel compelled to go back and improve some of my less satisfying builds. Tricky controls be damned – it’s a low-key game of the year contender.
All in all the game is a blast. It is a bit janky, and very much a love it or hate it ordeal. Some of you will bounce off it in a few games, and some of you will get a giggle out of how explosively violent it can be. Fans of Let it Die bizzarely are in the same boat, and their love will depend greatly on their infactuation with the general gameplay experience. It strikes me as a game made by people who wanted to create something distinct for the sake of variety in a popular genre saturated with familiar traits. People who are probably fun to drink with. Not much about Deathverse: Let it Die is familiar, and it’s free. So like, try it out!
Where Octopath was fairly heavily promoted by Nintendo, however, it does feel like Diofield has been tossed into the ocean of the market to sink or swim. It’s the sort of game that probably doesn’t float very easily, either. It’s the sort of product that requires some marketing-shaped buoyancy aids. It was never going to cruise to success - and now I fear it never will. But it’s worth a look – and hopefully its ideas will go forward in other future projects. They’re certainly worth revisiting.
In that, it feels like the rare auteur-driven game – where it’s not just self-aware fun, but also a piece of art with something to say about the past, the present – and even how our changing understanding of ourselves, and our stories, can color the future. It’s brilliant, and exactly what I hoped it would be.
Metal: Hellsinger is a good time, if not a short time. Hard as nails, rewarding as they come, and fuelled by some of the best names in heavy music, The Outsider and Funcom have made a game that’s worth every second of your time it takes up – even if that’s only about the length of one of the more epic prog albums out there. A knowing and fun take on the rhythm shooter genre, plagued with some calibration and UI issues, this romp through Hell is as satisfying as it is frustrating – and not even hearing the dulcet tones and throaty growls of Trivium’s Matt Heafy can offset that.
Splatoon 3 feels quite samey, but a high level of polish and the series’ best single-player offering to date elevate this sequel.
The game tickles that part of your brain that big hitters like Elden Ring and Dark Souls do, even if it does so with less intensity. If you’re absolutely fiending for more of that kind of game, or are just looking for a fair-weather bash, pick it up with tempered expectations.
I promise you, it’ll leave you charmed and hungry for more.
I’m not sure I’ll ever stop wondering about the snakes, the apples, and every other prop laced with subtext. I think that’s what Immortality set out to do; transform how many of us think about, and approach, all forms of media – as well as the people who play a part in shaping it, and shaping our lives in the process.
If this wasn’t a remake, I firmly believe it would be right at the top of Game of the Year articles as we assess things over a bit of Christmas Pudding. The PS5 has had some brilliant games already, no doubt, but as a fan of The Last of Us, Part 1 is my new favourite exclusive on the console.
Outside of the super set-piece main missions, it’s easy to bounce off the more repetitive elements of the open-world.
On the whole, Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a neat idea on the surface. When brought to life, it could’ve genuinely been a contender for one of the Switch’s top party games had it featured a little more variation, and some better multiplayer support. That said, the future of Kirby is now very much cemented in 3D, and I still look forward to where the pink puff ball ends up once they’ve decided that they can’t stomach another strawberry.
It’s easy to recommend Midnight Fight Express. For one thing, it’ll launch into Game Pass on the day of its release, August 23. But even if Game Pass wasn’t a factor, it would still be worth buying for just how cool it makes you feel, how good it looks in motion – and best of all: how it allows both of those feelings to be accessible to most players.
At the end of the day, you can have a decent amount of fun with Tower of Fantasy but it’s hard to see this title having much of a future. Just next week, Genshin Impact has its version 3.0 release which will drain most of the content-hungry gacha crowd away, while Zenless Zone Zero appears to be a looming giant that’ll present a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting with great quality. Investing much time and money doesn’t feel right when the strengths of the title can’t overpower the overwhelming negatives.