GameCloud's Reviews
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.
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.
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.
As a series, Bomberman has its bad entries but is otherwise considered to be among the ranks of gaming classics. Super Bomberman R spits on that as one of the undeniably worst entries in the series, taking into account the time at which it was released and what came before it. As a “celebration” of 33 years of the franchise, it does sweet bugger all to actually encapsulate what has made the series good. Whether it be uninspired design, the most standard mechanics of the series with no innovation, and a lame attempt at including a story, Bomberman R is not short in ways to disappoint long-time fans. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that anything remotely resembling pride was involved in its development. If this has been a budget, eShop title on release then it might have been forgiveable. However, this was released as a full priced launch title for the Nintendo Switch, and for that I would expect much better than this.
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.
There’s a reason that most 40K fans groan at the prospect of the series taking the form of a video game, and it’s because of titles like Space Hulk: Deathwing. Whether technically bad, poorly designed, terribly written, or just flat out no fun to play, there’s almost always something wrong with them, and everything is wrong with SH:D. Despite having Gav Thorpe on hand, the narrative only manages to be interesting in concept, but never in execution. The design is torn between being a traditional Space Hulk game, and wanting to be the 40K Vermintide clone many were hoping for. It’s boring to play, with combat being as uninspired as possible, and the role of the relics being severely under-developed. In many ways, it can’t even get the canon of 40K right, either abandoning it or sticking to it for the sake of design and gameplay in all the wrong places. By Holy Terra, it’s basically heresy! If Space Hulk: Deathwing were a planet, it’d be high time for Exterminatus Extremis because even with the polish that this game is absolutely lacking, it would still be unsalvageable.
Despite taking place in a marvellously detailed, humorous, and lively world, the story of The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is rather by-the-numbers, and a lot of the game’s design harkens back to the old games in the series in the worst, most rigid ways possible. Further to this, even after a few updates, the game is still fraught with technical issues, but it is slowly being patched, and inXile has a good track record for working on their games to improve them. And the good things that are still present in this game are excellent, like the fantastic writing, refreshing approach to puzzle designs, and beautiful music present throughout. The design could also be tweaked to remove the sting of a lot of the older design tropes that cause the most grief. As it stands, the game in its current state is rough as guts, but there’s a lot of room for improvement, and I’ve faith that it will improve. It will just take time.
In all honesty, I think the official release of PUBG should have been delayed further to iron out its most significant issues. Connection problems, lag, rubber-banding, and a rash of cheaters are the ingredients for an online game's death sentence if left unchecked. The devs have shown a fair amount of diligence in working on these issues post-release, however, and the future of the game could still be promising. At its core, it's still a thoroughly enjoyable experience, especially if you're playing with friends, and I think it could be the best example of a Battle Royale game to date. It just needs a bit more work and polish to get it far away from the Early Access state its currently in. If you are interested in trying PUBG, just do yourself the favour of getting on PC so you're not playing an interactive slideshow.
One Piece: World Seeker is an encouraging step in the right direction for licensed anime games. It’s not outstanding in any way, and it doesn’t push any boundaries, but the open world design feels refreshing, the gameplay is fun enough, and, in this particular case, the pull of the One Piece franchise is enough to warrant attention from the gaming mainstream. There are still many teething and performance issues that will need to be fixed if World Seeker is going to be considered a design template for future titles. However, for now, I’m cautiously optimistic about what the future holds for titles like this, and that’s a far better feeling than I’ve had about anime video games in a long time.
The Caligula Effect: Overdose has a lot of interesting design elements to set it apart from the crowd: the combat, the story premise, the recruitable school body. While these sort of unique elements are normally enough to secure my interest, the performance issues and poor character development make it difficult to get invested in. It’s certainly far from approaching the lofty heights of the Persona series, but it may still be able to catch your interest.
God Eater 3 is a game that takes a still relatively niche genre and does some interesting things with it both narratively and in terms of gameplay. It’s a much more story-focused experience with an interesting world and compelling cast of characters that’s currently unrivalled by other games of its type, but it’s also ultimately held back by its gameplay. There’s a distinct lack of combat depth later on in the game, the locales feel uninspired, and its repetitive nature makes God Eater 3 a title I can only recommend to those itching for more games of this kind.
If you were a fan of the first game, Armada 2 is a no-brainer. For the rest of us, it’s the same as before with more stuff in there. The new factions add some much-needed variety into the mix, but the campaigns are static and uninteresting – at least for the first few hours. The unchanged combat is still off-putting to me, but it’s still good for a quick bit of dumb fun. Most importantly, it’s not a bad 40K game. It’s not amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not heresy incarnate.
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a game that’s good enough for those who already enjoy flight sims, but it’s not likely to convert anyone who isn’t already a fan. The central mechanics are hardly innovative, the checkpoint system is a satanic artifice conceived only to dismay and affront, and the story is a meandering, butchered mess. However, it does have enough merit outside of these issues to warrant consideration. Interesting mission design and cool boss fights can be enough to make a game a worthwhile purchase, just make sure you’re actually convinced you could be Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about New Dawn. While I applaud Ubisoft for being willing to introduce new mechanics into the tried and true Far Cry formula, it’s a shame that not many of them are successful. The RPG-esque hit point system doesn’t feel at home in what has so far been a traditional first-person shooter series. Weapon upgrades have been dumbed down without the meaningful updates that were available in previous games. And the setting, despite being visually appealing, doesn’t offer returning players anything significant beyond a merely serviceable narrative. New Dawn isn’t a bad game, but it certainly feels like a missed opportunity.
Farming Simulator might not be the most exciting game, but it's not without virtue. Vehicles can be impeccably modelled, the gameplay frees up space in your mind, and harvesting large swathes of grain can be satisfying. Those moments of joy are few and far between, though, and only the most dedicated farmer could take FS19 as a standalone experience without being consumed by Kantian levels of apathy. Perhaps I'm too cynical to appreciate the simple act of creating food in a virtual sense, calloused by the constant stimulation that the internet and games provide me. On the other hand, it could just be that farming is super dull.
Despite Onimusha: Warlords’ individual elements looking good in isolation, the game amounts to less than the sum of its parts. Its systems aren’t inherently poorly designed, but they fail because they’re given no time to develop and are rendered arbitrary because the game lasts only a few brief hours. If, however, you can brush these concerns aside, as I imagine long-term fans of the series will do, there’s certainly some nostalgic value to be had here. The world and inhabitants of Onimusha: Warlords are as charming as they were on the PS2, and those who grew up on the game will surely enjoy revisiting Inabayama Castle after so many years. The one hope to hold on to is that this sells well enough to warrant a remaster of the significantly improved (and longer) Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
While Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun failed to make the motion control experience capture the challenging appeal of the original arcade game, it’s not without merit. The colourful presentation and catchy set list are a joy to experience, and the tap controls are responsive if a little easy to master. It’s certainly nothing to shake a stick at, but fans of the genre may not find much for them here here, especially when the console already has some solid rhythm games available.
You know when you purchase your favourite packet of chips from the shops, take them home, and upon opening them, find they’re half filled with air? Well, that’s kind of how My Hero One’s Justice feels. It’s slick as all hell, looks great, and has the elements to be a winner because it has a great foundation backed with solid gameplay. However, it’s also just a bit empty and leaves you with the feeling of wanting more. With some minor tweaks, My Hero One’s Justice could have fallen the other way into a “must have” sort of game. Unfortunately for now, though, you’re going to have to satiate yourself with a couple of tasty handfuls and nibble at the crumbs that dropped onto your shirt.
I immediately wanted to invite some friends around so I had an excuse to bring out Playgrounds 2. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also difficult to sustain lengthy sessions of play by yourself when there’s not much more than three different modes to cycle through. It’s a decent game that ultimately suffers from a lack of content, and for that, the game stumbles before the finish line, unfortunately. While I’d recommend giving it a look, especially if you loved NBA Jam back in the day, it’s also something you could sleep on for a while before giving it a shot.