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Flawed and often out of touch, Syberia 3 only serves a dedicated clutch of fans that have spent the past decade looking for closure to a beloved series. To anyone else, it will come across as a bizarre and mostly impenetrable relic that feels out of place among 2017's slate of releases.
There's nothing quite like GNOG out there in design terms , with each monster puzzle box giving the impression of being a toy. The VR aspect is a really nice option that enhances the experience too. However, while GNOG looks and sounds great, it doesn't generally offer much difficulty, instead happy to almost point out the answers to you. A charming but short and simple puzzle game, it's nice and accessible to everyone.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a perfect example of a remake that's been done for reasons beyond simple material gain. Lizardcube have clearly put everything they have into making it unerringly respectful of the original – for good and bad – but this has all the look of a gorgeous modern indie platformer, while retaining the old-school gameplay that made it so memorable the first time around.
Symphony of the Machine is a pleasant enough puzzle game, with its laser beam manipulation requiring a little out of the box thinking at times. However, it's a concept that we've seen before in VR, and niggles with moving around and interacting with this 3D space left me feeling a tad frustrated and disappointed.
Sadly, Scanner Sombre never really attains the heights of Dear Esther and Gone Home, two games that Introversion site as inspirations. If you have an interest in that genre, it's still very much worth exploring the cavernous depths of Scanner Sombre, but more than its fellows, this is a striking idea that searches for a game and a story to make the most of it.
The constant churn of daily activities may prove thankless and repetitive for those impatient and unwilling to immerse themselves, but if you surrender yourself to Stardew Valley and dig deeper beneath the surface you'll find one of the best, most impactful games you play this year, homage or not.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a short experience, but one of the best that has been released in recent memory. Giant Sparrow rose to prominence with The Unfinished Swan and here the studio has cemented itself as one of the best at constructing narratives intertwined with engaging environments. Both a celebration of life and a commentary on the tragedy of death, What Remains of Edith Finch should be experienced by as many people as possible.
Regardless of my handful of complaints, the fact is that Momodora grabbed me and never let go. From start to finish, I was in love with the world, the combat, the easter eggs, and nearly everything in between.
Despite some technical issues brought about by Cities: Skylines' transition to Xbox One, it remains an enthralling city builder, and one which has virtually no competition on console. The most keenly felt loss is the ability to fast-forward through time, but for those who succumb to its more relaxed pace, Cities: Skylines is liable to remain the best home console city builder for some time.
Little Nightmares is something of a minor classic. Gorgeously gross and surprisingly inventive, it creates a genuine feeling of terror and tension. It's a bit odd to say a game that involves skipping over corpses is enjoyable, but it is, just don't blame Tarsier if you have nightmares.
The relatively unique Georgian setting and the brewing civil war are all but set aside for a by the numbers story of revenge and betrayal, while Jon isn't a very likeable protagonist. The various bugs and crashes also need to be addressed in future patches, as they can ruin the experience. Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has the sniping down to a tee, which should be expected with the number of years CI has been working on the series, but the surrounding package could be better.
Honestly, the best way to experience Puyo Puyo Tetris is to gather some friends and play a local multiplayer session. There's a plethora of modes available and it's a blast to have people play each and every one of them. Despite single player and Online ranked matches being utterly relentless, Puyo Puyo Tetris is still a fun party game with a wholehearted recommendation nonetheless.
I really enjoyed Statik. It's not particularly big, but it is very clever, and has clearly had a lot of thought and love poured in to it. VR is an integral part of the game rather than being a showy gimmick, making this a fine addition to the PlayStation VR library.
It's an odd complaint, but Flinthook really does feel like a high-calibre platformer trapped within the confines of a popular genre. It's a blast to play and I don't even mind just how punishing it can get at times, but the interest wains as soon as death occurred. It took me straight out of the zone when playing and when the game doesn't have much to it beyond the gameplay, it's a bit of a downer. The foundations are there, but really the curtains don't match the décor.
Enigami's attempt to craft a full Action-RPG experience as an indie developer deserves praise, and, visually at least, it comes close to aping its peers. However, a meaningless story, awful dialogue, irritating combat and an utter lack of pace sees it come up short in every other area that matters.
Where most game series can rest on their laurels, Dawn of War III is essentially the third reinvention of Relic's Warhammer 40,000 RTS. As the game captures a sense of grand scale, it loses some of the strategic nuance in changes to the cover system, and it's a disappointment that tried and tested multiplayer modes aren't included as well. That said, the campaign makes for an enjoyable and challenging romp through yet another crisis in the 40K universe, and while some gameplay elements have been simplified, the three deeply contrasting races offer plenty for players to sink their teeth into online.
Mario Kart 8 was already a simply sublime kart racer on Wii U, but Nintendo have managed to make it just that little bit better. From the new and improved Battle Mode to tweaks that add more depth for veterans and more accessibility for novices, a great deal of thought and effort went into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, beyond simply porting it to Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to be the best in the business, and now you can play it on the train.
Utopia and Banks amount to a significant improvement to Stellaris that rewrites and overhauls a lot of the game for the better, adding yet more ways to try and build your empire. However, it also feels like Paradox are still just getting started with exploring everything that the game can be. It might take time for them to get there, but it's a journey I'm looking forward to taking with them.
Late Shift is a decent FMV title with a cast that puts in a lot of effort to make their characters believable. It's let down by some glaring plot holes that don't stand up to scrutiny. There are seven endings, meaning that some of the choices made do matter, while others feel a bit like filler and don't seem to change anything. The ambition and the actual cinematography is there, but the writing really needs some improvement to push Late Shift toward greatness.
Odyssey achieves what it sets out to do really well. It offers an enjoyable and well-designed engagement with the history of scientific reasoning and successfully enforces its educational aspects with appropriate puzzles. It doesn't set out to be a game for a wide audience, but there is much here to enjoy for those with an enquiring mind. It comes with the caveat that this is unashamedly an educational game, but it certainly beats leafing through a dusty old science textbook.