USgamer's Reviews
Pokemon Let's Go is engineered to let youngsters play along with their parents, but there's a lot here for veterans to enjoy, too. It's relentlessly cute and colorful, and while the challenge level won't blister your skin, the new Coach Trainers will keep you hopping. We're still not sure about the Go-style method of catching wild Pokemon, but Pokemon Let's Go's ability to link-up to Niantic's app offers a quick and easy way to fill out your PokeDex. Game Freak is clearly getting the hang of the Switch, so bring on Gen VIII!
Sometimes Tetris Effect dances into the profound: wherein the music, the visuals, and the act of playing Tetris can make you—dare I say it—emotional. Then there's the other side of Tetris Effect, the tedium with instant-fast speeds and hard-to-discern tetrominos in more than just a few levels. Tetris Effect is at its best when it's just normal Tetris, with no strange shapes for blocks; with just the music and visuals to help you drift away as you fall into a flow. In PlayStation VR, that effect is only leveraged, making it a must-own game for the virtual reality platform.
Hitman 2 may just be more Hitman, but it's somehow even better than before.
Eight years after the masterpiece that was Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games is taking a second shot. New protagonist Arthur Morgan gets a better supporting cast, an absolutely beautiful open world with more visual variety, and a ton of things to kill or collect. There's some occasional tedium in travel, and a few bugs and annoyances, but nothing that prevents Red Dead Redemption 2 from being an excellent game.
As a continuation of Marvel's Spider-Man for PlayStation 4, The Heist is okay.
Soulcalibur 6 comes as a strong package simply by offering the modes we've come to expect from the series.
While bare-bones on the surface, Dark Souls Remastered is one of the best games of the last 20 years running better than it ever has. New players will find all of the mood, challenge, and tension of the original, and returning vets are given beefier online options and minor tweaks to small details. More importantly, it keeps one of the medium's best games easily accessible and readily available.
As a cornucopia of multiplayer action, what I've played of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 feels like it delivers.
The minigames of Super Mario Party are great, taking advantage of the Switch hardware in unique and creative ways. It's the dialed back board game and its lackluster extra modes that let the whole package down though. While it's still bound to be a great party game to break out when friends visit, it lacks the drama of the best in the series.
Mega Man is back from exile, and he brought a nice gift for us to show there's no hard feelings. Mega Man 11 brings back the same high-quality platforming that made the Blue Bomber a household name in the '80s and '90s, and the new Double Gear system shakes up the classic gameplay without feeling like an intrusion.
Building upon the foundation established in Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey brings together that title's RPG adventure with the ship-bound exploration of Black Flag. Choice and consequence feature heavily in Odyssey, with the player guiding Alexios or Kassandra through a massive journey to reunite their family and kill a lot of people. Not every feature is perfect, with things like recruitment and Conquest Battles needing a bit of work, but overall Odyssey is a grand next step for the journey Origins started.
Valkyria Chronicles 4's cel-shaded graphics look sharp as ever on the Nintendo Switch, and the tactics provide a sturdy challenge over the course of more than 60 hours of gameplay. Alas, the cast and the story don't quite measure up to the original. If this is indeed a true revival for Valkyria Chronicles, I hope the next entry finds a new and interesting spin on the somewhat tired Second Europan War.
FIFA 19's headline new feature, the Champions League, adds to an already slick and fine tuned package, but it's the subtle gameplay tweaks that have made EA's latest such a big success. On the pitch FIFA offers more control than ever before, finally making for a game that isn't just about showing off to mates.
Life Is Strange 2's debut episode, despite its faults and its slow-moving pace, starts the series off compellingly, setting off on a road trip adventure that I'm sure will bear more hardship for the two brothers than unlikely friendships.
You can debate the merits of some of this version's additions, but the same strong core that has pushed Forza Horizon to the top of the driving sim heap remains firmly in place here. It's an incredibly impressive graphical production that puts even its beautiful predecessor to shame, and it's a true pleasure when out on the road. Forza Horizon 4 is one of a handful of showcase games that truly ought to sell you on an Xbox One X and a 4K TV.
As heartfelt and emotionally painful as Episode Two of The Walking Dead: The Final Season may be, I can't help but feel like we've seen this all before. The groundwork has been laid for a brutal war, and everything from now until then seems to be dwarfed in comparison. Friendships are still the beating heart of this Final Season though, and it's the moment to moment interactions between characters, and the writing, where this second episode excels.
Star Control: Origins is a solid reboot of a PC classic. It provide players with a a huge universe to explore, vast planets to conquer, and interesting aliens to meet. If you've wanted to be a sci-fi ship captain, now is your chance. Unfortunately, the main story lacks meaningful players choices, ship combat is simplistic, the great writing can sometimes devolve into repetitive dialog. Star Control Origins is a decent foundation and given the developer, it's likely it'll eventually be great, but right now it's just good.
The Gardens Between is a great example of a puzzle game with the most simple of mechanics, showcasing how much can be stretched out of so little. Its light story of friendship is sweet (if not a bit too saccharine). It complements the core mechanic of controlling the passage of time, and well, the inevitability of how no matter how much you'd like time to stand still sometimes, it'll move along regardless.
The two sides of NBA 2K are once again on display in this year's version. One side is the immensely polished and ambitious design that has propelled it to the top of the sports sim heap. The other is the tacky, brand-heavy microtransactions that dominate its showcase mode. I think the former outweighs the latter, but it's too bad that microtransactions overshadow what should otherwise be an amazing love letter to the sport of basketball. At least there's always franchise mode.
The biggest challenge for EA is getting people to give NBA Live 19 a shot over NBA 2K19. Overall gameplay in NBA Live 19 is good, but nowhere near great.