Digitally Downloaded
HomepageDigitally Downloaded's Reviews
I have never played any other game quite like this which uses all the trappings of religion in a way that subverts our everyday conceptions of it. What happens when you hold people to artificial standards of behaviour that turn everyday acts into punishable sins? This game peers at the line between portraying real life religion in a game and using it as artful commentary, and completely obliterates it.
As far as pure entertainment goes, it's hard to look past Sushi Striker.
Bloons TD 5 is representative of a once-great studio at rock bottom. Let's hope that the good folks at NinjaKiwi haven't completely forgotten how to make a game fun, and either find a way to revitalise Bloons, or find a new game entirely, if the plan is to ever release another Nintendo Switch game again.
It doesn't thrust anything new and shiny onto you, nor does it have to beat the same drum by picking from a pot of clichés. It's more of the same: more of doing what it takes to survive, more of learning to live with yourself when you can't save everyone, and more of making the most of a worsening situation.
Iro Hero ambitiously seeks to reinterpret polarity switching shooters. Baffling design choices render it alienating even to seasoned shoot 'em up fans, however. The blueprint for a clever shooter is here and it's possible the developers will rectify that base game with patches and updates, but the Iro Hero of today does not reflect that lofty potential.
I'm so delighted to say that Lust For Darkness is the real deal. The fact that I can compare it to one of the greatest erotic thrillers of all time in Eyes Wide Shut, and not break down laughing, is in itself is a great credit to the developers. The game lacks the sheer mastery and refinement that Stanley Kubrick had over his canvas, but this is still leagues ahead of the clumsy, overly-simple idea of "horror" that most game developers aspire to.
Vampyr is the vampire story that I've waited for many, many years for.
The Lost Child is also a game that so cleanly represents everything good about the dungeon crawler genre that I found it hard to put down. The fact that it's the perfect introduction to the dungeon crawler genre also makes it the perfect first example on the new hardware.
Even hardcore fans of the series will struggle with this, and it's a shame because it looks so bloody good.
Sorcery Saga is a solid roguelike with a big heart, lots of content and a hefty challenge, but its repetitive gameplay and occasionally hostile design choices makes it a niche pick.
Samurai Defender looks like it should be more than it is, but never gets there, and feels overwhelmingly shallow as a consequence.
This is 2018's most cuttingly unpleasant game to play. And I'm one of those that played Agony.
Musynx is as no-frills as rhythm games get. That's not necessarily a criticism, because the music - the most important feature of the genre - is a stand-out delight. I will play this one a lot more than I play DJ Max or Superbeat Xonic, for example. And yet, while the promise of plenty of DLC music to come is exciting, Musynx also lets itself down by being far too easy, and limited in features, to hit those high notes as one of the best examples of the genre.
A flash or two of brilliance, weighed down into the vast lake of mediocrity by a few boring decisions and one downright clunker.
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is far from Arc System Work's best fighter, but it remains a very fun diversion.
Azure Reflections has plenty of challenge to offer the hardcore bullet hell fiends, but with its relative approachability and level of polish, it's also a great introduction to the world of Touhou shooters.
The concept, the narrative, the characters, the Lovecraft references... these are all brilliant parts to the game. But then when you really break apart the gameplay (at least on the difficulty I was at) and game options, the shortcomings become apparent.
This is the kind of game I can sit down to and play for an entire evening without realising how much time was slipping. It's always "just one more turn," or "just one more battle", and even after all these years of playing Koei's strategy and action games set through the Sengoku period, and reading books about it, I'm always impressed that Koei Tecmo manages to teach me something new each time it releases something in the franchise.
We've seen plenty of stalker horror games in the past (Amnesia being perhaps the best example), but a combination of bugs and absolutely dismal guidance from the game makes this one a very painful grind to work through, filled with trial and error deaths and far too few checkpoints for this kind of gameplay.
Milanoir is not the longest game, but that breakneck pacing is so high octane that it can become draining. Unfortunately, it's not a game that's easy to pick up and put down at will, because it's a little confusing as to when it's actually saving the action.