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Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector is a solid strategy game and an excellent addition to the Warhammer catalogue. Although the game only comes with two playable factions, its variety of units for each faction and original combat mechanics keep the game’s core gameplay fast-paced, dynamic, and interesting. This, combined with beautiful visuals and an immersive story told in typical Warhammer fashion, makes for a fun strategy romp from beginning to end, no matter whether you’re a die-hard Warhammer fan or a total newcomer to the Warhammer world.
Though it may alienate some players due to its lack of gameplay, Last Stop has an action-packed narrative that doesn’t get stale. It beautifully juxtaposes the mundane day-to-day life of three characters against a bizarre science-fiction story. The fantastic voice talent brings a level of charisma and life that unfortunately isn’t matched by the rather stiff in-game animations, although that doesn’t stop the game from being a fun tube ride through an alien-infested London where weird stuff happens to pretty ordinary people.
Death’s Door crashes onto the scene stylistically with an amazingly detailed, interconnected world full to the brim with personality and secrets. The game introduces great characters that bring with them charisma and humanity as it lovingly juggles both the morbid and the beautiful sides of its narrative. With simply phenomenal sound design that lovingly accompanies and amplifies the visuals and atmosphere, Death’s Door presents one door absolutely worth knocking on.
Chicory: A Colorful tale is an adorable little adventure with clever puzzles, cute writing, characters and hardstyle. The painting mechanics are incredibly well utilized and keep the gameplay constantly fresh while the gripping story keeps you wanting to play more and more. It also has plenty of secrets and items to find that keep the game replayable if you want to continue exploring. These things alone would make a good game, but the intelligent and heartfelt story is what makes it amazing. You learn so much about the characters and yourself while playing Chicory and it teaches such wonderful lessons that are applicable to anyone of any age. The writing and the world work together so perfectly to create an experience that is both fun and cute, while also being deeply profound. It isn’t a grand, sweeping story. It is small, it is personal and it hits incredibly close to home.
Where The Heart Leads is a terrific narrative game that has you make hard, fascinating life choices on behalf of its characters to create a story that feels your own. It utilises its surreal elements sparingly, instead opting to focus on the realistic personal lives of its many richly nuanced characters. Despite some slight issues with dialogue, menus, and the camera, Where The Heart Leads is a great experience, and a fascinating exploration of issues rarely covered in games.
A faithful remake of the most polarising 3D Zelda title, Skyward Sword HD provides numerous quality of life improvements that help polish some of the original’s roughest edges. Its issues with pacing, repetitive gameplay elements, and a lacklustre narrative remain moderate detractions from what is an otherwise legendary Zelda experience, filled to the brim with the charisma, creativity, and satisfying dungeoneering the series is famous for. While it doesn’t bring any new content to the table, the addition of button controls and portability (courtesy of the Switch) means there’s never been a better way for newcomers and diehard fans to experience the strategic combat and innovative puzzle-solving of this lofty adventure.
Boomerang X is truly a spiral of interlocking gameplay loops stacked on top of each other. After a slow start, Boomerang X whips up an absolute whirlwind of bullet-time style combat that can be an absolute sight to behold. So much love and care have clearly permeated the gameplay of this title. The problem is that beyond the loop, there isn’t a lot going on. Some frustrating design elements and a feeling of repetition is present, although it doesn’t fully dampen what is undoubtedly some fantastic moment-to-moment gameplay.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is somewhat imperfect, but the flaws don’t quite eclipse its strengths. Despite the annoying party AI and grind, the combat has the right level of tactical depth I would expect from a turn-based Monster Hunter game. With its adorable Monsties and a wide-open world to explore, gamers looking for a new JRPG to dive into can certainly do a lot worse. As long as you are prepared for some irritating supporting cast members and a somewhat repetitive gameplay loop, fans of the monster-collecting genre will get a lot out of this game.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a game whose only real sin is having been beaten to the punch by Mario and Sonic. Each event plays well and is backed up with solid presentation, tight controls and AI that offers a proper challenge when against you, while having your back when on your team. Add to that a soundtrack that feels properly encouraging and some solid reasons to keep trudging at the elusive medals and you have a solid title that clearly wasn’t rushed by any stretch. That said, if you prefer your sports to be on the realistic side, or you want things even wackier with a touch of spiky hedgehog, this probably isn’t the game for you. For everyone else – go for gold!
The Wild at Heart is a story-rich action-adventure that draws you in and pulls at your heartstrings as we follow two children, Wake and Kirby, as they discover who they are and where they belong. The immersive and detailed storytelling and intuitive gameplay make The Wild at Heart a beautifully crafted showpiece. Whilst some of the gameplay further into the experience can feel repetitive and some mechanics are either underutilised or unnecessary, this is still a game worth sharing with people of all ages as it offers unique experiences for each player. Moonlight Kids have done an amazing job creating this unique and wonderful world and the story within. If you are an avid lover of puzzle adventure games that involve weird and wonderful creatures, coming of age stories, battles against supernatural foes and uncovering secrets, then The Wild at Heart is something you absolutely must experience for yourself.
Near four years since its original release and Doki Doki Literature Club has still stood the test of time thanks to this ‘Plus!’ edition. Where there are some shortcomings in the fact that it takes a little while to get the ball rolling and will be even harder to enter unspoiled, it’s worth it when you consider what’s on offer. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is a delight. It’s horrific. It’s heartbreaking. But most of all, it’s a wonderful model of how to take the visual novel formula and absolutely turn it on its head. Just be aware, there’s some sadness behind those anime characters’ eyes.
Although it doesn’t bring many new elements to the Metroidvania table, ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights kept me glued to my controller due to its gorgeous art style and its way of enticing players through exploration. The game is a bit of a contradiction – it’s relaxing yet challenging and damaged yet beautiful. Ultimately though, I very much enjoyed roaming the medieval fantasy world of Land’s End and seeing what spirits would join Lily and help her on her quest to cure The Blighted.
Legend of Mana Remastered rounds out the 90s Mana titles to be brought onto modern consoles in a true-to-form remaster. Updated visuals and new features are certainly a nice touch, even if the narrative can be a challenge to earn. While the game shows its age in places, fans of the genre and Mana series as a whole will love returning to the world of Fa’Diel, or experience it for the first time.
Imagine Earth is a great strategy title with a meaningful underlying message. With original mechanics regarding natural resources, the health of your planet, and overpopulation, the game offers an immersive and thought-provoking experience that will satisfy both veteran strategy game fans and newbies alike. Its gorgeous visuals and story will be a great fit for anyone who enjoys city builders and strategy titles and is keen to try out something new.
Mario Golf: Super Rush is one of the few games Nintendo puts out that every now and then is a bit of a miss. While trying its best by adding new modes, it doesn’t have the charm, polish and even satisfaction that have come from previous superb titles in the Mario sports series. What it needed to succeed was more doubling down on those beloved Mario characters, more time in the oven and plenty of ways to sink your time. Despite some moments of promise, it failed to match on almost all those fronts.
It’s unmistakable that Disgaea continues to be genuinely unique – there really isn’t anything else like it. Nothing really comes close with such a zany story, beyond ridiculous levelling, and an extreme amount of systems within the game. Every entry tries to change enough to warrant its existence, making improvements but creating new flaws. The 3D modelled characters will be hit or miss, and the current level balancing issues and lack of classes will certainly annoy fans. Yet the chaotic isometric tactical gameplay will always reign supreme over these issues, providing hours upon hours of complex mechanics and charming characters to tinker with. Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is a delightfully addictive game packed with personality and content.
Scarlet Nexus combines an enthralling story with fascinating characters and an addictive combat system that demands your attention. As you slowly peel back the layers of its cast, the twists and turns of the narrative will keep you engaged throughout its lengthy adventure, and as your skills increase, battles become a chaotic dance of exploding enemy bits, crazy finishing movies and endorphin increasing pleasure. While there are some areas that can feel repetitive at times and the visual novel presentation of its cutscenes might not be for everyone, there’s a lot packed into this dual protagonist story that begs for an extra playthrough as soon as you finish your first. Scarlet Nexus is unmatched when it comes to style and oomph. It manages to incorporate so many clever and creative combat systems that are slick and exciting that it far outweighs the slower pace of its narrative with in-your-face, over-the-top action that simply must be played to be believed.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance isn’t a bad game, but it does feel insubstantial at the moment. The lack of character development, plot or world-building will probably turn away hardcore D&D fans. As for the fans of multiplayer action games, while the core of the experience is fairly solid, the lack of technical polish, repetitive structure and unexciting loot system will likely not satisfy for long. Hopefully over time, patches and additional content can flesh out the experience and make it the rollicking fantasy hack and slash multiplayer funfest it has the potential to be. Just make sure you don’t forget to bring a friend or three.
A niche but mostly well-presented experience, Red Solstice 2 attempts to create something entirely new by blending established genres. While its mishmash of strategy mechanics into an action game doesn’t quite hit the mark, it does provide a swathe of tense, tactical moment-to-moment gameplay and absolutely nails its occasional moments of creeping alien horror. It’s far from a strategy game at heart, and struggles to strike a balance between its complex real-time strategy mechanics and action-oriented gameplay – but for sci-fi fans who are prepared to overcome the game’s learning curve and just want to squad up and rip apart some eldritch abominations, there’ll eventually be plenty of gooey green blood to sink your grenades into.
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is good for a short time, not a long time. What could have been a glorious game full of compelling contracts and challenging assassinations gets muddied by boring regions that are just begging to be filled with objectives to make them seem worthwhile. Instead, you’ll spend more time walking around than actually sniping the baddies. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 feels unsure of whether it can truly be a strong sniper simulator so instead it tries to outgun other FPS and assassination games – unfortunately, despite it’s fun sniping gunplay, it misses the mark on both.