IGN's Reviews
Superhot's clever time-manipulation idea delivers consistently fulfilling challenges by turning blink-of-an-eye action into carefully considered and cautious tactical decisions. It avoids potential one-hit death frustration with quick respawns and deaths that always feel earned and avoidable in hindsight. Its unique brand of puzzles are complemented by simplistic but helpfully high-contrast art and sound design, yet undermined by a tedious, intrusive story and a reluctance to put new game-changing spins on its ideas to extend their lives.
Under its attractively bright and cartoony art style, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 has a great amount of modes and customization options to enjoy, whether alone against the AI or with online allies and enemies. The interesting abilities options of the six new character classes gave me something to sink my teeth into, and the customization options are a great reward for playing outside my comfort zone. The sheer amount of enjoyment in this full garden will keep me in the war for some time to come.
The White March: Part II expansion for Pillars of Eternity boasts better pacing and lore than its humdrum predecessor, but at the cost of a running time that feels somewhat inadequate. A welcome new Story Time mode helps dull the force of the brutal combat though, and memorable settings and enemies make this an expansion to savor.
Fire Emblem: Revelation is an excellent final act to the Fates storyline. Its balance of difficulty and accessibility means that both veteran players and newcomers can enjoy it without feeling bored or overwhelmed, and its story starts slowly, but quickly becomes a worthy finale to this tactical trilogy.
True to its title, The Walking Dead: Michonne - Episode 1 is all about one character, somewhat to the detriment of the story and other characters. Michonne is so well done, though, from her impressive survival skills to the hollow look in her eyes, that she easily carries the entire episode. Even though I wasn't invested in the story, I did care about Michonne — everything she said, every walker she killed, and what will happen to her moving forward.
Far Cry Primal succeeds in transporting the Far Cry formula back in time and comes to the table with a quiver of neat ideas and a dangerous and fascinating open world. The visceral and varied combat is fun, the beast-based gameplay is a winner, and the lure of camp-claiming, gear-crafting, beast hunting, and resource gathering remains irresistible.
Judged against other tactics games, there are so many better options on the 3DS that Project X Zone 2 doesn't rate. Don't come expecting deep gameplay or even inventive updates to distinguish it from the previous game. PXZ2 is much more interested in matching up a diverse set of mascots for maximum humor and references to classic Japanese game series, which it skillfully handles most of the time. Nostalgia can only take PXZ2 so far in a lengthy campaign of average strategy gameplay, but it's an engaging old-school reunion while it lasts.
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is a fantastic balance of tactical challenge and accessibility. Even after I finished the story, I found myself returning to the battlefield again and again to unlock more conversations between friends and test my army's might against Nohr's finest. I'm addicted to Fire Emblem Fates, and that's fine by me.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a rewarding and deep turn-based tactical game with a grand story and characters I liked enough that losing them in combat really stings. The intense difficulty is squarely aimed at veteran Fire Emblem players, and its satisfying campaign is full of variety and challenge. And even though a win or loss can down to sheer luck, I walked away either satisfied or eager to give it another shot.
It's hard to criticize something that seems like it was tailor-made for a wannabe competitive player like me, but I just can't ignore how little Street Fighter 5 does for the average fighting game player. It sports a wonderful, diverse cast of characters, places a clear emphasis on strong fundamental play, it gives competitive players a great online experience, and it does it all while looking gorgeous. Strictly in terms of mechanics and competitive features, Street Fighter 5 is just about peerless, but it has quite a ways to go before it stacks up against other fighting games - including its own predecessor - in terms of overall content.
Layers of Fear lacks the surprises and subtlety needed to keep things interesting all the way through. It makes a strong first impression, but quickly exhausts its best ideas, making it hard for them to really shine as scary or meaningful moments. It's hard to be terrified when you can see what's coming at the end of every long dark hallway.
Dying Light: The Following manages to include a new fun-filled environment to explore along with a vehicle to do so that mesh together well with a story that's slow to start but ends with a powerful punch.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 refines the gameplay to the absolute best of the series and offers a large roster of playable characters. Unfortunately, it squanders all of that potential with a short and poorly presented campaign fought against buggy AI, a forgettable Adventure Mode and online matches that are plagued with connectivity problems. The Ultimate Ninja Storm series sadly does not end on a high note.
There's a pretty good game buried somewhere inside Cobalt, obscured by layers of poor balancing and technical glitches. The energetic combat and fun weapons make multiplayer a neat pick-up-and-play experience, but the bungled and buggy story mode just doesn't cut it. Cobalt left me feeling blue.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia disappoints on multiple levels, from a flat main character to unintuitive insta-fail stealth levels to clumsy combat and platforming. The few times it nails it with diorama-like puzzles and Helix powers only serve to make the rest of this side-scrolling spinoff look even worse by comparison.
Unravel took me on a surprisingly thoughtful and reflective journey, which encouraged me to appreciate the small and the insignificant with every step. As a puzzler it has charm due to Yarny's engaging skills, but as a platforming experience it's less remarkable. But to judge it solely on these mechanical aspects would be to overlook its greater achievement: the way it provokes subtle and complex emotions through the use of nature and nostalgia. It all makes for a sincere, warm-hearted, and extremely likeable adventure.
Firewatch is amazing for many reasons, but above all because it's an adult game that deals with serious issues, with realistic adult dialogue to match. And it deals with those issues just like actual adults would: sometimes with humor, sometimes with anger, and sometimes with sadness. It is among the very best of the first-person narrative genre, and it reminds us what video game storytelling is capable of in the right hands. It's a game I can see coming back to every year or two just to revisit its beautiful sights and memorable characters – just like a good book.
With a focus on variety and replayability, this sequel has an answer to most of my complaints about 2012's excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and aside from some mostly cosmetic bugs, it comes together brilliantly. Thanks to a new spin on the same great tactical combat, plus unpredictable maps and randomized objectives and loot, XCOM 2 is an amazing game I'll easily put hundreds of hours into.
Bombshell is a fast-paced, energetic, deliberately absurd action shooter that's mostly competent at everything it tries to do. Stunningly crafted, downright epic environments and tight, responsive gamepad controls steal the show. But it certainly doesn't pull off anything innovative or revolutionary, and the whole experience is dragged down by spiky difficulty, half-baked RPG mechanics, and poorly constructed (though varied) boss battles.
If you like the LEGO game formula, you have a preference for playing solo and you're a huge fan of MCU, there's still a lot of value for you in LEGO Marvel's Avengers, even despite a disjointed plot and annoying audio mixes. If you haven't played any of the others and you're thinking about picking up this one, I'd advise starting with just about any other game instead. This the weakest LEGO game I've played thus far, and had me missing games like LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO Dimensions.