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In a way, it feels kind of cruel to mark Gemini down. For all its flaws and lacklustre looks, you can tell that Phosphor were really onto something in the way it experimented with superpowers here. Given more time and resources – and without being weighed down by the Heroes license – the studio could have created a truly special comic book adventure.
Layers of Fear sits somewhere between the pejoratively classified 'walking simulators' and a full game experience, as for the most part you are simply wandering around and solving the odd puzzle. Despite the clichés and obvious jump scares, I rather enjoyed my time exploring the mansion and I'm looking forward to having another play through to see what I missed the first time round. If you enjoyed the Silent Hills teaser P.T. and want more of the same, then Layers of Fear is well worth a look.
Even as a person whose grasp of fighting games is nowhere near top-tier standard, Street Fighter V is the most fun I've had in a fighting game in years. It's a bold choice by Capcom to make this an expanding platform rather than a simpler game release, and it means that while it's light on content, you have to appraise its stability, core combat and look to its true form in the future. Based on the strangth of the gameplay and performance, Street Fighter V is a sublime fighting game and shows that this old dog still has some new tricks.
XCOM 2 somehow manages to improve upon the 2012 series reboot in almost every single way; from the way that the concealment ramps up the pacing, to the minor changes to battles and management that both fit the theme wonderfully and make for great gameplay. Aside from a few moments where the impossible happened and a some optimisation issues XCOM 2 suffers from, this is one uprising worth taking part in.
When an Assassin's Creed game has you swearing under your breath more than Super Meat Boy or Dark Souls, you know that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Where difficulty can be used to make a game more addictive or rewarding, here it manages to sap every ounce of fun out of the experience. Factor in the copious amount of idle waiting the stealth genre entails and what you have is a frustrating game that besmirches one of the industry's biggest franchises.
Awakening as a whole shows how good Black Ops 3 can look, and there's a few gorgeous locations spread across the multiplayer maps as well. Those obviously inject some welcome variety into the competitive playlists – well, once the handful of glitches have been ironed out – but for me and many others, Der Eisendrache is the standout addition.
Completely changing the environment that you play in and the way in which you get around that world was a bold move by Techland, but they've taken the challenge in their stride, and created something which is often just pure fun to play. If you're a fan of Dying Light, then The Following is a near essential expansion.
For those who love the novels, manga, and television show, this is perhaps the only Arslan game you'll ever get to play, unless a sequel is already in the works. Based on that fact alone, it's sure to reel in fans although other players may fail to see the appeal. Tear the anime-patterned wrapper away and what you have is essentially another iteration on the same aging format Omega Force has been peddling for years. In this case it has been slightly altered but not enough to conceal the franchise's ongoing fatigue as fewer bold ideas are brought to the table.
Despite some mild improvements over the last entry in the series, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is a bland and uninspiring slog that is unlikely to please anyone but the most ardent of fans. 3DS owners would be far better served waiting for the remastered versions of Pokemon Red and Blue than touching this with anything but the longest of barge poles.
In many ways, Unravel comes as a surprise. For one, EA isn't exactly your go-to publisher when it comes to smaller, riskier projects such as this. Then there's the developer, ColdWood Interactive, itself. Based in Umeå, Sweden – which explains a lot about Unravel's artistic influences – the team has worked on titles such as PlayStation Move Fitness and The Fight which, although serviceable, haven't bag them many accolades.
You already know if you are going to be buying Firewatch, and if you loved Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or Life Is Strange then this is the game for you. It's small, short and almost perfectly formed, it's just the shame the game broke so many times when I was playing it. I'm hoping these problems can be found and fixed very quickly after launch and I would suggest holding off buying the game until a patch has been released, but until then we don't have much of a choice but to mark an otherwise lovely game down due to the problems encountered.
Amazing Discoveries In Outer Space is a game that takes no prisoners. You need to be aware of everything to ensure survival, from not using too much fuel to deciding which planet could be worth landing on. While the design of the game is good and there is fun to be had, it comes at the cost of a lot of repetition. There are a couple of things thrown in to mix it up and keep you on your toes, but even those are limited and can't stave off that fact for long. Cosmic Picnic have created a good game and if you like tough roguelikes then you'll have some fun with this.
My experience of Mordheim: City of the Damned is one where knowledge of the source material is both a blessing and a curse. This isn't a bad game, and despite its flaws there is still fun to be found in the Empire's official worst city to live in. I am well aware that some of my criticism stems from my personal love of Games Workshop's ill-fated tabletop classic, but at the same time, this also affected my enjoyment in a positive way. A game which allows me to have online Mordheim-lite matches with friends is great, but ultimately its blemishes stop it ascending to brilliance.
Nitroplus Blasterz will no doubt fly under the radar of many, and that's a huge disappointment. With strong gameplay and a healthy amount of unique characters, it's a game that lives up to the pedigree of its developer. In a lot of ways, it even outdoes their previous titles. Casual and experienced fighting game players alike will find something to enjoy in this package, and fans of anime and Japanese media might even walk away with a few new titles to check out.
Despite occasional pangs of belittlement, The Witness refuses to release its hold on me. Although there are aspects of the game that I clearly dislike, part of me longs to be immersed within its fascinating world. It feels strange, therefore, to try and put a score on this review, given how each individual will react differently to it. That term may be overused but if you were to spend just an hour or two with the game, you would know it to be true. Unique, divisive, and fiendishly clever, there are bound to be those who love it and those who absolutely hate it. Then there are those, like myself, who fall somewhere in between, able to appreciate Thekla's achievements but frustrated at how The Witness continues to build a wall around itself, as if guarding a secret from its players.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is a fitting finale for the game series and for fans of the anime. With a great range of content, a huge roster, and spectacular visuals, this is certain to be a hit with those who have a history with the franchise. Unfortunately for outsiders though it's likely to remain a beautiful yet incomprehensible brawler.
Final Fantasy Explorers certainly has the potential to grow into worthy Monster Hunter alternative, but its first attempt is a little way off. Despite being nothing more than satisfactory in some key areas, there are some neat ideas at work that, if combined with a revised approach to gameplay, could make this the strongest Final Fantasy spin-off series to date. It's way too early to start dreaming about sequels or what could have been, however. What we have here is imperfect though some will undoubtedly find themselves exploring Amostra for many hours to come.
Lego Marvel's Avengers is another great entry in the brick-based franchise, and fans of both series, and in particular Lego Marvel Superheroes, will likely lap it up. It combines a fantastic property, with a pleasing level of narrative variation which of course plays home to the atypical value for money that Lego games are renowned for. However, there are a number of oddities to the way various sections or components of the game have been handled, and the formula remains much the same as it was ten years ago, keeping it from being anywhere near to a revelatory moment for the franchise.
The 2013 reboot was no slouch in the visuals department, especially when played on PC or current gen consoles, but Rise of the Tomb Raider takes this even further.
Oointah have tried to make a game which does something a little different, but haven't really brought all the factors together properly. Mixing a fast paced and strategy with brutal difficulty is a challenge in itself, and making that fun or appealing even more so. Death by Game Show loses that appeal quickly by following the same basic gameplay throughout while punishing the player for even the smallest of mistakes. If you like tough games then this is for you, but fans of strategy or tower defence have much better options available to them.