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There are some things to like about Party Hard, but overall, the game feels like a half-baked experience that doesn't evolve beyond its basic premise.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a disappointing Wii U exclusive horror story that is more likely to put players to sleep than it is to scare them.
The indie FPS game Standpoint has a compelling premise and good voiceover narration, but the repetitive puzzles are given far more focus than its unique themes.
Homefront: The Revolution is a mediocre FPS that squanders an intriguing concept, but worst of all the game is not fun to play and overwrought with repetition.
Back to Bed looks like a surrealist painting, but the similarity is only skin deep: this isometric puzzle game is as conventional and uninspired as they come.
In 'Shelter 2,' you are a mother lynx, helping your adorable cubs survive in the wild. Unfortunately, the 'oohs' and 'aahs' don't last long, even if your cubs do.
A game like this, where the mechanics fall extremely short, needed a strong story to carry players through, and that's not the case here. The game is by no means broken, save for one or two bugs, it just isn't very fun to play. Much like its protagonist, Murdered: Soul Suspect is lifeless.
'Infinity Runner' is a valiant attempt to bring endless runner gameplay to consoles, including a unique werewolves-in-space storyline, but it's gameplay is hit-or-miss.
South Park: Snow Day is a budget game, but instead of something brief but replayable with a lot of South Park humor and bursts of fun, players get something muted, limited, and shallower than even that detail would suggest. It offers some fun across its short runtime, but it's ultimately forgettable for any roguelike or South Park fan.
Skull and Bones is a bloated game that does manage to swim instead of sink, but not without many caveats. In an attempt to separate itself from Black Flag and stand out from the likes of Sea of Thieves, Skulland Bones doesn't so much color outside the lines as much as dogmatically stick to a tired formula while burying its strongest attributes under mountains of redundancy and half-realized concepts. For those who crave a game set during the Golden Age of Piracy, there are definitely things here to enjoy, but get ready to do a lot of digging.
In the face of an IP filled with rich themes with something important to say, Frontiers of Pandora ignores the point entirely and goes on to have a gameplay loop where players spend most of their time killing otherwise docile animals to make arbitrary numbers go up so they can be as immortal as possible within the confines of the game. This would be business as usual for any other open-world gameplay loop, but it's embarrassingly ironic and tone-deaf for an Avatar game. Sure, anti-pollution sentiments are there because it's impossible to make an Avatar spin-off without them, but they're there superficially and treated as a checkbox for players to complete - ultimately ringing hollow. A betrayal of Cameron’s themes with the Avatar IP, seemingly stapled together as an attempt to get a slice of the highest-grossing film of all time’s pie, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn’t just generic; it is downright cynical.
Alan Wake 2 has incredible graphics and some memorable moments, but it's dragged down by technical issues and tedious gameplay.
When it comes to adaptations, Hellboy hasn't had a ton of luck lately. Hellboy Web of Wyrd certainly isn't on the same disastrous level, but it's underwhelming in its own respects. Hellboy and his world is a potential gold mine of fantastic adaptive potential, as Guillermo del Toro proved with his pair of films in the early 2000s. The character offers so much more, and though Web of Wyrd has some bright spots, it ultimately fails to realize the potential of its source material.
Atlas Fallen had promise, but nothing that this game strives to accomplish ever lands very well or feels fully realized. Between a lackluster story filled with generic and soulless voice acting and a combat system that loses its momentum well before the credits roll, there is rarely a moment where this game feels memorable or worth the time to finish. There is some good stuff on the surface of Deck13’s new IP, with its beautiful vistas and interesting world-building and aesthetic, but digging past the surface of Atlas Fallen shows that it is mostly hollow underneath.
Ultimately, however, this latest entry in the franchise is simply not exceptional. It’s easy to get sunk in and lose huge chunks of time tending crops and animals or befriending villagers. But, overall, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a steady middle-of-the-road offering with nothing to recommend over anything else currently available in the genre. Almost every aspect of the game is good but not great.
The 2023 Layers of Fear is definitely the best way to experience the Layers of Fear games, but they were never particularly good to begin with. While Layers of Fear is what put Bloober Team on the map, the studio has put out significantly better games since then, like sci-fi horror game Observer, the Blair Witch game, and the Silent Hill-inspired The Medium. Horror fans should consider checking those out before taking a chance with Layers of Fear.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is polished and runs perfect, with fast-paced and exciting combat. Gamers that grew up playing 90s FPS games will get a kick out of how much it borrows from Doom, Quake, and the like, but many will tire of the archaic design choices that have been abandoned by modern games. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun represents the best and worst of 90s-era FPS games, so while it has a solid foundation, it fails to deliver truly compelling content to go with it, making the game difficult to recommend to anyone that's not a hardcore Warhammer fan or who isn't desperately nostalgic for the 90s.
One of the best feelings in puzzle games is that ‘Ah-ha!’ or ‘Ohhhh!’ moment when a solution that seems obvious but continually remains elusive, suddenly becomes evident. Storyteller has these moments, but altogether entirely too few of them. It tries so gallantly to keep that feeling, but it ultimately stumbles due to its short length, disappointing ending, and low difficulty. Still, there is enough charm to the game that some will seek to complete the stories that Storyteller wants to tell.
Elderand is a competent Metroidvania offering but suffers from inconsistent bosses and a reluctance to dive deep enough into its inspirations.
Gungrave G.O.R.E is unlikely to be acclaimed by a wide audience, but fans of the franchise will delight in its classic gameplay and modern visuals.