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Unravel strengths lie more in its heart-warming story than offering compelling gameplay. Even though there are some thought-provoking puzzles, they're few and far between. There's no doubt Yarny is quite the adorable little mascot who has good intentions, but a video game can't succeed on good intentions alone.
I enjoyed my short time in the world of Firewatch. The world is beautiful and the voice acting is excellent. But Henry and Delilah's story is far too short, and the resolution of the game's story relies far too much on a backstory that isn't given the breathing room it needs. It's an emotional rollercoaster that just teeters back down to a merry-go-round, leaving me with a detached feeling that everything I had spent the past few hours working towards has been all for nought.
In many ways, XCOM 2 is more of what we already enjoyed in the recent reboot, with a few considerable improvements. The new units liven up the experience and add much more variety, while the procedurally generated maps help to customize every player's experience into a one of a kind novelty. If you're a newcomer to the resistance or an old veteran, XCOM 2 is a smartly designed action-strategy game with a staggering amount of content and replayability.
The Witness is an intentionally simple game to grasp, but enjoyment almost feels proportional to patience. These puzzles are absolute brain-breakers, so anyone that doesn't have the patience for them will get no enjoyment out of The Witness. I was certainly on the verge of being one of those people, but exploring the sheer beauty of the island and learning more about its central mystery turned out to make returning worthwhile.
LEGO Marvel's Avengers is what I expected it to be. It combined TT Games' ability to translate a popular film franchise into a fun and family-friendly experience while also adding some new tricks, such as the stud multiplier and combo attacks. And even though I was quite familiar with the source material, I still couldn't help but to pay close attention to its story as it was delivered in such a unique and fun package.
Final Fantasy Explorers was a smooth and accessible introduction to this game type, and has customization options galore, but if it intends to be a long-term dungeon crawling adventure, it needed more to explore.
Darkest Dungeon takes the staples of roguelikes and adds the atmosphere and themes of Lovecraftian Horror and does so with incredible success. The game captures the feeling of battling an unending wave of nightmarish abominations with little to no chance of hope. But when you do succeed you feel like a million bucks. The difficulty may deter many people from trying this game out, but if you are brave enough you will be rewarded with a rich experience.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam can get a bit grindy at times and drag on at certain times, especially the first time where it looks like the game's end is at hand. But there's more than enough masterfully comedic writing to carry the day, between the sight gags, fourth-wall-breaking references, and Luigi's pratfalls. While that can be used to describe most Mario & Luigi RPGs, it's tough to maintain comedic consistency in video games, so Nintendo and AlphaDream definitely deserves some props for managing to wring out a few smiles.
As Capcom continues to churn out remakes, each seem to get better than the last based on consumer feedback. Resident Evil 0 HD has the amount of visual and auditory polish I'd expect from a Capcom remake, with the same frustrations I've had with early entries in the iconic series. With that said, Resident Evil 0 HD should easily cater to fans of the series, but without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, I came away more frustrated than impressed.
Oxenfree is sure to keep you guessing until you reach the final ending screen. At which point I can't promise you won't just start over, ready to explore the ghostly realm ocne again.
The experience is also more exciting on the whole, due to a series of large set pieces. Most of these come in the form of harrowing escapes, and at one point you're asked to snipe enemies while still keeping in mind the stealth focus. Assuring guards don't notice that you're picking them off one-by-one from afar makes for a unique challenge not seen in most stealth games.
If you're looking for a game that combines elements of Skyrim, Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, and japanese RPGs, then Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen should be on your watchlist.
As a faithful fan of both FreQuency and Amplitude, I'm satisfied with the reboot Harmonix has so lovingly crafted, but as a much different product than the loud, raucous Amplitude I fell in love with as a teenager. I won't keep returning to this Amplitude like I do the 2004 version despite enjoying the soundtrack because it lacks the same kind of replay value for me, but as its own being it absolutely stands on its own feet as a music title evocative of games like Rez or Child of Eden. If you're looking for the next evolution of classic rhythm gaming, this is it...let's just get some additional tracks added into the fold in the future.
Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star isn't a lump of coal by any means. Rather, it feels more like unwrapping a present and getting socks.
Still, the fact that I want to go back and grind some missions to level up my less developed characters speaks to SteamWorld Heist's longevity and satisfying appeal. Image & Form has another retro-inspired gem here, and has further established that like its denizens, SteamWorld stands for piecing together something great from a box of spare parts.
However, Pokemon Picross is massive, so longevity certainly isn't lacking. It comes with 30 areas, two large-scale murals composed of smaller puzzles, special stages to help your Pokemon Mega Evolve, and randomized encounters that appear occasionally on the map to catch rare creatures.
Xenoblade Chronicles X feels like a truly breathtaking effort, evidenced by how much love has gone into crafting each and every inch of its massive planet. And it's a planet that Nintendo and Monolith Soft have made worth exploring and worth learning. It's not for everyone, as the story gets off to a slow start. In fact, expect the story to last well over 40 hours. The game also doesn't waste much time with tutorials. Players aren't left entirely to the wolves, but the combat, equipment, stats, and party system is far more complex than the simplistic tutorial tips let on. It's also worth repeating that new players should expect to die a lot!
Rico's latest adventure is a welcome addition to the Just Cause family. There is plenty of destruction to cause, and plenty of room to explore the world however you want to. It's a welcome amount of freedom from the action-packed linear games we seem to have gotten used to, and I'd easily rank it among the best of the open world games that the current generation of gaming has to offer.Just Cause 3 is more than worthy of sitting on your shelf next to games like The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, so don't miss out on this action-packed ride.
Star Wars: Battlefront is everything a Star Wars fan could want. The game's locations feel iconic, complete recreations of the beautiful settings introduced to us in the movies. But the game's casual attitude towards weapons, and the limited number of locations to explore make Star Wars: Battlefront sizzle out far too early. Top that with an exorbitant DLC offer, which features content that feels like it could be in the base game, and EA has already done a great job of freezing Star Wars: Battlefront in carbonite before it's even had a chance to live a fulfilling life.
After spending over 35 hours exploring the nooks and cranny of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, I'm saddened to report that my initial findings still ring true. What I had hoped would be a return to everything great about Assassin's Creed has failed to really pull me in. It isn't a terrible game by any means, and I'd rank it much higher on the totem pole than the previous installment, Assassin's Creed Unity. But that doesn't change the fact that Ubisoft's latest assassin-centered story is only a few shades above mediocre.