IGN's Reviews
Despite some ho-hum combat, Zombi's handling of death and exploration make it a worthwhile horror game.
Volume may suffer from a few issues of poorly designed AI and easily exploited level design, but I still found a great number of challenging rooms with an intriguing story to match, and plenty of room to master. The added bonus of being able to show how to complete a room by livestreaming a game about streaming how to complete a room… is just icing on the meta cake.
The Descent is a challenging yet unsatisfying experience that raises more questions than it answers.
Though GALAK-Z's roguelike elements are fairly basic and stripped down, they do succeed in adding extra layers of challenge and replayability to an excellent space shooter. Progressively mastering its wonderful controls and unlocking new upgrades had me totally hooked, and even though its idea of mission variety is something of an illusion, its smart, playful personality kept me too entertained to care.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture excels at building a dense world, evocative tone, and rich cast of characters. Its five hours are filled with some really great exploration, discovery, and memorable moments. Piecing together its web of heartbreak, loss, and ultimate revelation provides a great experience. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture rewarded my patience with a fulfilling journey.
I badly wanted Beyond Eyes to use its attractively whitewashed look and novel, visually limited ideas to tell a much more moving story whose empathetic lessons could've stayed with me long after the end credits rolled, but it didn't. Only its ending taps into this potential, and it's a shame the rest of its short playthrough time couldn't follow suit.
Submerged attempts to replace tension with curiosity as a motivating force, and largely succeeds even though its environmental storytelling isn't as dense as it could've been. It's an unchallenging, occasionally beautiful experience that caters to our instinct to see what's on the other side of the mountain. In the moments where Submerged rewarded inquisitiveness, I loved it. When it occasionally stumbled in that responsibility, I found myself wishing for a more polished and complete world to explore.
Etrian Odyssey is a meaty adventure with dozens of dungeon floors and bone-crushing challenges to overcome with its competent turn-based combat. The story isn't perfect, but I was happily kept busy with exploring the world, battling bosses, and feeding the hungry citizens of my hubtown.
Rare Replay is an incredible package. Its presentation is charming, the extras are amazing, and so many of the games included here are still a blast to play. Whether it's your first time through or you're revisiting decades later, Rare's journey through the past 30 years of video game history is a fascinating one, and Rare Replay does an incredible job of capturing the essence of what makes the studio's work so unique in our medium.
The Magic Circle is a marvelously creative, puzzling adventure that's very mad at you.
Tembo stumbles at times, but its overall charm, and moments of rhythmic zen keep it fun throughout.
Dark Room finally sets off the mystery but it's the least consistent episode of Life Is Strange so far.
Guild of Dungeoneering is a fun and interesting approach to turn-based dungeon crawlers.
Old-school adventure game mechanics make a great return to form in King's Quest: A Knight to Remember. This tale is funny, beautiful, and challenging enough to make up for a few plodding quests and frequent load screens, and it maintains its personality from start to finish, sprinkling the first episode of its story with happy highs and tragic lows.
Hatoful Boyfriend on Vita has some technical issues, but both versions still hatch a great story with a cool new bird.
Three years later, Journey remains one of the most powerful games in recent memory.
Game of Thrones Episode 5 takes a turn south with some out-of-character portrayals and lack of forward momentum.
Codemasters' F1 2015 racer falls far behind the pack this year due to a lack of expected features.
Due to tedious gameplay and lackluster visuals, Godzilla fails to live up to his title of King of the Monsters.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a disappointing golf game that just barely manages to make the cut.