GameCloud's Reviews
Ōkami HD serves as proof that even among today's trends, progression in an open-world game such as this one can be meaningful. The newly improved 4K resolution is just an added bonus that further demonstrates the game's visual style will never get old, regardless of its obviously dated textures. In my opinion, it's a near-perfect game, and one you should definitely experience if you haven't already. It's also one well worth revisiting, even if it'll be your fifth time. The latest release of Ōkami HD might not provide much more for people who've played the remaster already, but when it's priced so cheaply, it's not much of an asking price.
FFXV Comrades isn't great – for now – but the development team behind the game's post-release content has a track record of improving things over time. The expansion has a mountain of technical problems, a ham-strung design in comparison to the main game, and becomes tedious and repetitive to play after only a short while. These are, however, all fixable issues, and in the immediate wake of Comrades' release, it was already receiving improvements and fixes. I have little doubt we'll see more added to it over time, likely in the form of new mission types and possibly some narrative improvements. Whatever the changes, I'm certain that this will feel and play very differently in six months time. For those interested, or burned by the initial offerings, I'd recommend keeping an eye on it and waiting.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 can easily be considered the best available “reason to buy a Switch.” While there are already a lot of great titles available for the system, much of the current library is also shared with the Wii U and other platforms. Xenoblade, on the other hand, is an unforgettable journey you’ll only get to experience on Nintendo’s newest console, and is currently, in my opinion, the best exclusive available for it. A magnificent world, well-written characters, interesting plot and refined combat, all mixed together make for an experience that you’d be hard-pressed to pass on.
Like many, the Star Wars franchise is dear to me, so I'm disappointed EA let their plans for monetisation and a rush to meet deadlines get the better of them with Battlefront II. While there's some fun to be had in Battlefront II's multiplayer and arcade modes, there's no denying its story and mission design is lazy and uninventive. The game is full of Star Wars charm, expressed by its well-designed maps and excellent production values, but it's ultimately let down by a lack of incentive to keep playing and the very system that's supposed to let us live out our far-fetched Star Wars fantasies. The life of this game now depends on where EA goes from here – and yes, there have been steps taken to rebalance the economy, and free DLC is a good start – but inherent mediocrity limits them when it comes to players who want something that's more than a one and done Star Wars adventure.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the best turn-based RPG I’ve played in years. The combat is incredibly tactical due to the implementation of the two armour types and how they resist effects from skills, classless character progression offers an overwhelming depth and strategic flexibility which gives the game huge replay value, and buying new gear and levelling up requires so much consideration as there are lots of meaningful trade-offs. Personally, I found the narrative underwhelming, but it was of little consequence overall as DOS2 is a beautiful and immersive game, featuring a lengthy campaign with cooperative play and other multiplayer modes. It’s unfortunate the poor tutorials leave so much unexplained, and interface issues may cause frustration for some, but my time with DOS2 has been great, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in tactical RPGs.
Need for Speed Payback is a fun but ultimately flawed and frustrating game. I was optimistic going in based on what had been shown prior to release, and while the racing action is indeed as tight as ever (albeit lacking in set pieces which were so prominently advertised), there are just too many issues which add up to drag the experience down. It’s another classic case of quantity over quality, and while it isn’t an inherently bad game, it’s seriously let down by its linear structure, tedious progression and upgrade system, and terrible dialogue.
In the end, it’s difficult to see the point of Super Lucky’s Tale from either a commercial or critical point of view. If you (or your children) haven’t played the games that Super Lucky’s Tale bowerbirds, there’s no compelling reason to not be playing those instead (beyond, perhaps, their availability on Xbox and PC). If you have, there’s hardly enough here to justify your time, money, or emotional integrity. At best, it’s a sugary, adequate if frequently flawed distraction. At worst, it’s a morose void belching an existential crisis, poorly concealing the frantic absurdity of all existence beneath its irreverent cartoon veneer.
ELEX is a game that has a great idea but awful execution. While there are moments to roleplay, the progression feels incredibly forced, and combat is a wholly unenjoyable experience. You can’t go and be the Jax you want to be without spending far too long with Viking hippies first, which was enough for me to be put off the game. If you like being one-shotted by inappropriately placed enemies or are really, really, really longing for an RPG that channels old-school design, maybe ELEX is for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though, because the future is always on the horizon, and it’s got better games than this.
MachineGames has once again knocked it out of the park. Ever since The New Order, they’ve been a developer to look out for, topping all the Wolfenstein games that came before. Now they’ve shown they can surpass even their own work. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a blast to play, with exciting combat, a phenomenal cast of characters and an incredibly eery mirror portrayal of our worst real-world fears, come to life. Throw in some crazy attention to detail and a whole lot of polish, and you get a game that is bursting at the seams with style and design, ready to wow you at every turn. On top of all that is a story that honours everything that came before, while still making its own mark on the franchise.
Gran Turismo Sport is a great driving game when reviewed in isolation. It’s got great racing, amazing visuals and stunning attention to detail which would make most petrol-heads froth. However, it also falls short when compared to its competition who boast more cars, tracks and just more fun. This ultimately makes GT Sport tough to recommend.
While no game is perfect, Middle-earth: Shadow of War still manages to get a lot of things right. It has its faults, sure, and the ones behind it made a few mistakes, but if you can see past that and see it for what it is at its core, I’m sure you’ll find a great adventure worthy of a few playthroughs. The improved Nemesis system is a joy to behold, and all the new places you can visit are great. Throw in a few highly cinematic fights and some fantastic attention to the history of the world, and you have a game that I’m a bit sad isn’t canon because it offers many smart and exciting additions to the story that I think might have impressed even Tolkien himself.
FFXV Comrades isn’t great – for now – but the development team behind the game’s post-release content has a track record of improving things over time. The expansion has a mountain of technical problems, a ham-strung design in comparison to the main game, and becomes tedious and repetitive to play after only a short while. These are, however, all fixable issues, and in the immediate wake of Comrades’ release, it was already receiving improvements and fixes. I have little doubt we’ll see more added to it over time, likely in the form of new mission types and possibly some narrative improvements. Whatever the changes, I’m certain that this will feel and play very differently in six months time. For those interested, or burned by the initial offerings, I’d recommend keeping an eye on it and waiting.
Monster Hunter Stories definitely isn’t as engaging or as action-oriented as its predecessors, but that doesn’t really seem to be its goal. There are definitely some obvious ideas not implemented into the game, for whatever reason, that might have made it more fun for players familiar with the series. At its core, however, MHS is a stepping stone for younger players into a more extensive series. The fact that it managed to hold onto the personality of the world Monster Hunter takes place in while making it more accessible is a major success for the game, which isn’t something every developer can say of their work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go back to having the Monster Hunter World trailer on an endless loop.
I think that Pokkén Tournament is a solid game that languished in relative obscurity due to the failing status of the Wii U by the time it was released. Pokkén Tournament DX doesn’t really change anything from the original design, so based on that alone it’s still a good game, regardless of what you may or may not think of the new content. While I have issues with the timing of some content’s inclusion, it only improves the game in the end, signalling the potential for continued support and content updates in the future. It certainly stands to have a better life on the Switch than it did on the Wii U, particularly if it receives some post-release love from the developers. They can start with putting the correct Pokemon into the roster lineup. If you enjoyed the Wii U version, or you wanted to play and never got around to it, it’s worth picking this up for a second go around.
When I first saw the leaks for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, my mind was immediately filled with images of Shadow the Hedgehog holding a gun. It seemed like an idea that just wasn’t going to work. Now that it’s here, however, I’m pleasantly surprised that Ubisoft managed to basically knock it out of the park. Mixing some of Mario’s familiar exploration and puzzle elements with a simple but robust combat system has resulted in a short but enjoyable detour off the regular track for Mario. I do have a couple of gripes about how the team is assembled at many points of the game, but it’s not the worst thing to ever happen. That aside, there’s very little to fault with the game – I’d even go as far as saying that I’d love to see a sequel.
At the end of the day, XCOM is not a game that’s meant to allow the player to feel powerful. It’s a struggle, you’re always supposed to feel like you’re on the back foot even when things are going well, and at best you merely survive to fight another day. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen remains faithful to this idea by curating its content to be an extra layer on what’s already present; a new challenge added into the mix for veteran (or masochistic) players. There’s an enormous amount of content that enhances the game overall, as opposed to being an exceptional footnote at the end of a separately good game, which makes this the best kind of expansion. I feel like the Chosen were handled poorly narratively, starting out strong before fizzling into nothing, but that isn’t a complete deal breaker. That said, more than a year after release, the game still has a lot of problems with visual and technical bugs, which is disappointing considering WOTC is their third major expansion. If you’re a fan of XCOM 2, you’ll want to give this a crack, and any who were sitting on the fence about whether or not to play should consider this expansion a green light.
I’ve compared Agents of Mayhem to Saints Row a lot in this review, and perhaps some of you reading might think that unfair. I think it’s entirely appropriate, however, since at their core they are essentially the same game, and there’s even some canon crossover happening between the two. Agents of Mayhem is just a stripped down Saints Row with less charm and character, less willingness to embrace its own silliness, and dreams of being something like Crackdown. There are too many player characters with not enough customisation, and little point to there being so many for the lack of unique content in this title. Well done, Volition, you spent four years making a terrible version of one of your most beloved franchises. Please don’t do this with whatever comes next for Saints Row.
It took me a long time to get back around to finishing off The Walking Dead: A New Frontier for full review, and, honestly, it’s because I knew exactly what it was going to be like. TWD games from Telltale these days are the same as all their other titles of this “hybrid” genre. Literally, their designs are all the same with different skins; it’s boring, and they’ve been somehow getting away with it for five years now. A New Frontier is no different, and it’s disappointing as I’ve really enjoyed the Walking Dead games up to this point. However, considering the lack of direction with the narrative, and the generally unlikeable cast present in this series, it’s clear that the well of ideas for Telltale to draw from is running dry. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll probably want to play it in prep for the final season. Otherwise, this is nothing special. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the next season of TWD is the final one from Telltale.
If you’re the kind of person that complains about games being hard, or unfair in their mechanics, then Darkest Dungeon probably isn’t for you. It’s in that same vein that, if you played the original game and thought that it was too difficult, The Crimson Court expansion probably isn’t for you either. In combination with the base game, it can make progression exceedingly hard, if not outright impossible for some. As end-game content, the process of completing it can become a grind, which takes away from the tension Darkest Dungeon carries so well with its initial design. The expansion isn’t all bad, with the additional content and mechanics themselves being interesting and unique additions to the game. Red Hook is actively updating the expansion content based on player feedback, and have been since its release. Hopefully, in the future, it will be much more balanced and live up to its potential. Right now, however, it’s just kind of a slog through Darkest Dungeon’s oppressive love taps.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. Like many others, I think the biggest draw was that it’s another SFII remix game, which have traditionally been well received in the past and a joy to play, even if you’re not a fighting game fan. There were so many missed opportunities to introduce new modes or improve versions of old modes, and anything that was included honestly felt like it was thrown in as filler. As far as SFII sub-series re-releases go I can unequivocally say that this is the worst; for both time and money, there are better SFII remix titles out there that you could be playing. It’s plain to see that Capcom, knowing that the SFII allure would sell units, pushed out a half-assed release as a full priced game. If this is their idea of quality these days, they need to let this sub-series rest.