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Pagan Online’s Slavic fantasy pulls from mythologies that are slightly off the beaten path, but so much of the game feels like familiar — and what’s worse, less successful — tropes, mechanics and ideas gleaned from other ARPGs, MOBAs and mobile games.
Almost more than any other expansion or add-on pack, Realm of Magic changes the core gameplay and daily life routine of the Sims characters.
Before long, you will notice that the sweat you once poured trying to get through brawlers like Streets of Rage and Final Fight is absent here.
However, for all that talk about the game’s subject matter, its satire is no stranger than what you used to see in South Park’s heyday. Agatha Knife is all barks and no bite as it makes fun without being mean or mocking. I expected to sit through some profound lesson but much to my surprise – and without spoiling too much – the outcome was positive for all the parties involved. In the end, the unique presentation and a curious premise hide a somewhat familiar parody and the so-called criticism the game likes to think it represents isn’t as sharp as Agatha’s knifes.
From its title screens to its combat mechanics, The Surge 2 copy/pastes a great deal from the two-year-old original and while it moves the franchise into a more open and populated world, I was hoping for a more dramatic evolutionary leap. Like its Soulsborne models and its predecessor, The Surge 2 is a challenging game, made more so by an inconsistent frame rate and sometimes imprecise combat controls.
Conceptually, Repressed is exactly the type of game that appeals to me. Delving into the repressed depths of the mind provides plenty of opportunities to tell an immensely profound and intriguing story.
While it isn’t technically a new game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening looks and feels as fresh and inviting as any new game released on the Switch. It preserves all the strange, playful fun of the original while utterly transforming it visually and mechanically, and preserves everything that made Link’s Awakening a classic.
Star Wars Pinball is a great collection of themed tables, and it manages to fit as many references from the series to please any Jedi or Sith Lord. Of course, if you’re not a fan of either Star Wars or pinball, I would first recommend Zen Studios’ other pinball tables or other Star Wars games.
Headliner: NoviNews isn’t meant to dazzle people with super tight, unique, and revolutionary gameplay. It is, however, immensely replayable as it gives room for you to play through the story again and make all sorts of different choices the second or third time around.
The combination of a prose through plentiful and well-written dialogue and a peculiar, detailed cartoon art is really invigorating. Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones caught my insatiable imagination in a way no other game in the genre has done in a long time.
Due to unfortunate design choices, I just wanted to rush through everything and couldn’t exactly enjoy my time with the game. In short, Ancestors Legacy felt too much like a chore to play.
As a design doc, a game that combines horror, sci-fi and Norse mythology sounds intriguing but in actually, Apsulov just seems uncertain of its identity.
While there is no lack of stuff to do — story missions, side quests, and faction missions, not to mention the multiplayer PvP Ghost Wars suite which is the marquee feature for many players — not all of it is engaging and most all of it has been done before and better, not only by other shooters but by other games in the Ghost Recon franchise.
Don’t let the nondescript and somewhat generic title cause you to look away. Indivisible is charming as all hell, sweetened with a bit of old school flavor, and a product of high craft in every regard.
Despite my issues with Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns, the game is still one heck of a great experience, twelve years later. Battles are as exciting as ever, while the new wealth of classes and quests ensures that even series veterans will be able to get lost in this world all over again.
If you shun DiRT Rally’s authenticity or F1 series’ almost tiresomely detailed race weekends and don’t mind the deficiency of online features, GRID is just about the best game you can get if you only fancy racing fast.
John Wick Hex is a fun experience, but one that woefully fails to deliver on its premise. Nothing really demonstrates this more than the ability to play back each completed mission in real-time.
The single player campaign is a bit of a wash, but your experience depends on what you want from the game. Daemon X Machina excels at playing against skilled human opponents and taking the time and care to customize your arsenals.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with complexity and challenge in a game but Warsaw adds to the mix some capricious unpredicatability in its AI mechanics and design that can be frustrating, resulting in gameplay that is simply not on the winning side of the challenge/reward equation.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a masterpiece of design that balances tradition and subtle innovation and is very bit as entertaining on the Switch as it was on PC or PS4.