IGN's Reviews
Fatal Bullet isn't a bad game, but it didn't hold my interest for very long. It's fun to be surrounded by familiar faces from the anime series, and I could see glimmers of depth in Fatal Bullet's combat and upgrade systems. However, the poor story pacing and the repetitive nature of exploration dragged it down. While it's a good change of pace for games based on SAO, it still lacks the polish needed to really stand out.
Moss made a wonderful first impression and never let up. Spending four hours with Quill in this VR world was a joy, and no one element or environment type wears out its welcome. Its mix of combat and puzzles hooked me quickly, always kept things fresh, and left me wanting more.
Past Cure never does anything special. Every time it tries to do something interesting, it immediately forgets about it and does something else. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad thing to include a number of genres within one game. In fact, it can help keep it fresh if they serve as a breather from a strong central idea. The problem is that Past Cure has no strong central idea to take a break from or return to. Whether it's the initially compelling yet convoluted supernatural story or the interesting gimmicks that never leave the tech demo phase, it's a disorganized bundle of ideas that are never given a chance to develop into something out of the ordinary.
Apocalypse does a great job as Battlefield 1's final DLC, sticking to the formula that made the Battlefield series so popular in the first place. But while it tries to push the boundaries with its Air Assault mode, the awkward flight controls and lack of content keep it from living up to its potential.
The wide variety of mech and pilot abilities make Into The Breach's tactical combat deep, satisfying, and replayable. Every turn creates a new complex puzzle, and though sometimes there's no perfect solution, finding the best way to minimize damage creates frequent eureka moments as you learn to make the most of the abilities you're given to work with. It's a small-looking tactics game that's kept me playing more intently than most big ones.
So much of Metal Gear Survive is repeating the same thing over and over again in single- and multiplayer. Defending the same points from the same zombies. Exploring the same zones for the same materials. Mining the same resources for the same small amounts of gear. But after learning the ropes and learning to set your own personal goals within that loop, there's an odd comfort in the formula, and I can see myself returning to expand my end-game base out of my own completionist urges. Survive might not compare well to the tactical espionage action that's defined the Metal Gear series we know and love, but its oddly hit-or-miss combo of some solid old ideas and some clumsy new ones has at least some appeal.
Rust is an aggressively competitive survival game that thrives on conflict and trash talk. Other games are better at the individual components, like DayZ for the tense player interactions, Fortnite for the battle royale mode, or Subnautica for the survival gameplay, but Rust blends lesser versions of all three together in a way that works. For competitive players who want a mix of survival and crafting, Rust is the best there is; for everyone else, there are plenty of other games.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG that does the medieval era right with a refreshingly small-scale story and strong realistic combat.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DLC for Injustice 2 is one great fanservice filled package for TMNT fans, and fits right in with Injustice 2's star-studded cast of heroes and villains. Their four distinct sets of abilities and playstyles make it feel like four characters for the price of one.
Fe is a short-lived platformer that still manages to outstay its welcome in some regards. Its platforming is okay but unimaginative, and its best ideas, like the tree jumping and singing affecting the world, remain underused. It can be a beautiful game at times, especially with regards to its music and audio design, but not so much so that it hides its rougher edges and undeveloped concepts.
After the resounding success of Dynasty Warriors 8, Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like a major step back. What's lost in the move towards an individually-centered story spread across a massive open world far outweighs the minor benefits that are gained. While the excellent button-mashing gameplay stays intact with great tweaks and additions, it wasn't enough. The lack of multiplayer, missing alternate game modes, and emptiness of ancient China left me far from satisfied.
Without the Nemesis system driving its battles and creating consequences for failures, Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Blade of Galadriel feels smaller and less interesting than the main game. Its short story missions are creative and its colorful uruks are good splashes of personality, but the repetitive battles against more than a dozen Legendary uruks get old, even with the promise of new gear sets.
The Resistance DLC adds needed map variety to multiplayer and introduces another fun Nazi Zombies map. The tighter, dense map Valkyrie gives the new Resistance Division a chance to shine with plenty of close combat opportunities, while Anthropoid offers snipers space to work their magic. Even though Operation Intercept is a new map for the wonderful War Mode, it feels like a known quantity with its repeated objectives from previous operations. On the other hand, the new Zombies map Darkest Shore has plenty of challenging (if sometimes convoluted) puzzles to uncover.
Civ 6: Rise and Fall's new Golden Age and Governor systems add new and interesting decisions while Loyalty largely bogs it down.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT tries to spin too many plates at once. As a team-based arena combat game, it creates some interesting battles but comes up short against the depth and accessibility of something like Overwatch. As a fighting game, it fails to find a balance between the challenging execution of a Street Fighter and the pick-up-and-play chaos of a Super Smash Bros. And as Final Fantasy fan service, it ticks some boxes but has some glaring omissions in its lineup and surrounding features. Even those who consider themselves Final Fantasy completionists aren't going to have enough story content to keep them playing for long. That's frustrating, because when its various parts all come together in harmony it is a fun, unique team fighting game.
A lot of what The Hidden Ones gets right is its ability to take familiar concepts from Assassin's Creed Origins and make them feel new again by means of a new purpose, a new story, and a new creed. A new direction to the story that makes Bayek more relatable, high-level combat keeps quests challenging even when you're fully leveled up, and a more rewarding pace of loot provide an opportunity to feel something new without straying too far from what I loved about Origins in the first place.
EA went back to the gym with UFC 3 to work on many of the weaknesses that had the previous two games struggling to find their footing. A fantastic new striking system and a much-improved career mode lead the charge, but UFC 3 is still hamstrung by a cumbersome ground game, weird collision issues, and the straight-up terrible Ultimate Team Mode. It's still not a knockout, but Round 3 is UFC's best yet.
Iconoclasts' combination of clever Metroid-inspired design and lush art offers more than enough incentive to stick with it, even when the ambitious plot doesn't always connect. This is a strange, complex game that – refreshingly – doesn't play quite like any other work in the genre. Iconoclasts offers a welcome reminder that they don't all have to play the same way.
Gorogoa crafts its inventive, sliding-tile puzzles and magical world with a graceful simplicity across a compact but fulfilling adventure. The excitement of solving each puzzle may be lost on a repeat playthrough, but its hand-drawn art and clever payoffs are no less satisfying to watch unfold again and again. Gorogoa manages to say so much without uttering a single word, endowing it with a mystery that invites a more attentive, thoughtful revisit — and one that I was more than happy to accept.
The true definition of a classic, the gameplay and story of Shadow of the Colossus are every bit as great and emotional today as they were in 2005. This outstanding remaster skillfully enhances those qualities with improved controls, performance, and sheer graphical beauty. It remains one of the best PlayStation games ever made, and it's wonderful that Sony has brought it back to the fore so a new generation of gamers can experience it without having to look past its aged facade.