Worth Playing
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There's a shimmer of something good in Blacksad: Under the Skin.
All in all, The Surge 2 is a great game to pick up if you're looking for a more arcade-like take on the Dark Souls formula. It's a fun and engaging game with a solid combat system and enjoyable mechanics, and it's only dragged down by a mediocre story and lackluster environments. With the excellent improvements from The Surge to The Surge 2, the franchise is well on its way to standing tall in the Soulsborne genre. It's well worth playing if you're an aficionado of this genre and don't mind dying a few times.
It isn't extraordinary, but Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts is a solid game. The majority of the gunplay is basic, but it pales in comparison to the attention paid to the sniping and the variety of gun mechanics. The enemy AI works fine even if they sometimes act dumb, and the environments make the missions more interesting. The lack of polish in a few parts of the presentation and some interesting quirks bring down the game, but overall, Contracts is worth checking out if you can temper your expectations.
Valfaris is solid. The pacing is great, and with the exception of the back half, the difficulty curve isn't too bad. The juggling of weapons in relation to their balance is well done, and the constant boss fights are a fulfilling challenge once you overcome each foe. Provided you enjoy the Nintendo-hard games of the past, Valfaris is well worth checking out.
Ion Fury is an old-school shooting fan's dream. All of the mechanics are intact, from non-regenerative health to the ability to carry a full arsenal of weapons, and the level design feels intuitive and encourages exploration without needing waypoints. Some of the new mechanics fit in well, but a few, like the need to reload, only increase the difficulty on a tough game. Seeing all of this done on a decades-old engine is enough to convince you of the versatility of those old FPS engines. Unless you hate the old FPS style, Ion Fury is a must-have for your gaming library.
The Ninja Warriors: Return of the Warriors is for those who love classic arcade or console games. Those players are fine with titles being a bit short, since the replayability comes through in getting better with the game or replaying with friends in tow. It certainly helps that everything from the expanded move set to the character differences and presentation is top-tier, 16-bit stuff and rather straightforward, except for the final boss. As long as you're coming in with a mindset of defeating the game more than once, you'll have a great time with this low-key classic.
I would recommend Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to anyone who's even remotely familiar with the universe. There are plenty of Easter eggs and geek-out stuff for the fans (you can build a custom lightsaber!), and the gameplay is less about reinvention and more about refining pieces to fit the experience, which is what a lot of great art is built upon. If anything, this game made me feel like I did back in the 1990s, when I truly felt the Force in the game space for the first time. It's a special feeling, and I look forward to seeing where this path goes.
Shenmue III is a game for the fans … and only for the fans. It feels like what would have happened if the Shenmue series had continued on the Dreamcast. This is delightful if you were hoping for a continuation of the franchise, but unfortunately, the appeal stops there for most casual players. If you're a fan of playing old, quirky games, you'll find something to like here, but if you can't tell Shenmue from Shamu, you probably won't understand the hype. It's nice to revisit a long-dead franchise, but if Shenmue IV gets made, one can only hope that it's slightly more ambitious.
In the end, Overwatch works well as a port. It's almost boring to talk about, as it aims to be as faithful to the existing versions as possible. It's not a technical marvel, and that may rightfully turn you off, but it's a feature-complete and portable version that is best for quick drop-in matches when you just want a casual match in Overwatch.