TheGamer's Reviews
I desperately wanted to love My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. It looks, sounds, and plays better than One’s Justice, while having tons of details that fans of the series are going to love. And in Free Battle, where there's no ridiculous difficulty spikes, they probably will. It’s just a shame that loving All’s Justice outside of that mode too often feels like getting hit with a Delaware Smash, leaving it as a decent and incredibly frustrating game that should have been great. Hopefully it will be with some sorely-needed balance patches.
Nioh 3 may stumble slightly with its narrative and a bit of bloating from the new open zone design, but it’s still far and away the best game in the series to date. Consistently excellent combat, well-designed bosses, and a new form that adds even more depth and value to already meticulously put-together mechanics make Nioh 3 more than a worthy challenger to Elden Ring. It’s so good, in fact, that even after 60 hours, I've already jumped straight into New Game Plus to keep getting my fix.
Reimagined solves that problem without sacrificing what made the original special. For series veterans, it's a chance to revisit a flawed classic in its best possible form. For newcomers, it's finally a reasonable entry point into one of the franchise's most rewarding narratives. And, for the first time, I can say I’ve finished DQ7 without needing a week of rest.
A great shooter with a lot of flair, I wish it followed its own ‘don’t stop moving!’ tagline a little more consistently, but it’s still a fantastic experience. A glitter-soaked, midnight raving, psychedelic pink fantastic experience that could be the shake up the shooter genre needs.
Code Vein 2 isn’t breaking new ground in most of its conventions nor will it become the new face of Soulslikes. But it has its own unique ideas that are fully realised, letting it stand out against its contemporaries in the genre, while surprisingly strong characters help blend the gameplay and narrative together. There’s a banquet of bloody delights to be had here.
I can’t help but be a little disappointed with Arknights: Endfield. On paper, it has the makings of an excellent gacha game, and with some updates in the future, it potentially might become one. But for now, it’s a slow and often tedious experience. I can’t see myself jumping in on launch day like I had originally intended, because I’ve burned out on the experience much quicker than I thought I would.
MIO: Memories in Orbit is a demanding, luminous journey through decay and empathy, one that asks a lot of its players and gives back just enough to make the struggle worthwhile.
But perhaps that’s the point. Pathologic 3 is about disease and friction and difficult choices. It is not a game for everyone, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s demanding and deliberately obscure, and asks you to embrace failure as part of its teaching method; that will put people off.
The Skate part of Skate Story is very good, offering variety, pace, and a unique approach to boss battles. But it's less intricate by design than other skating sims, and that's to make room for the Story part. Your mileage may vary on this, and there's clearly a lot of thought gone into every element, but sometimes so much of it comes off as noise. Or maybe you're smarter than me, and you'll just get it.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Is Not Only A Worthy Successor, But An Exciting Sign Of Things To Come
Whether you’re stuck comparing every brawler to TMNT for the rest of time like me or not, Cosmic Invasion is still a great experience that proves once again that Tribute is the best there is at what it does - and what it does best is very nice.
The creativity that once made Call of Duty an industry trailblazer has long been forgotten.
If you’re expecting Mario Kart World or Crash Team Racing but with Kirby, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But anyone who’s up for a racer that feels truly fresh, has a lot of hidden depth, and revs to the beat of its own incredibly loud engine is going to find something special here.
Even if Titans of the Tide is a little too short to make that kind of impact, it’s still easily the best SpongeBob game since Battle for Bikini Bottom, and possibly even better if you take off the Jellyfishing nostalgia goggles. I can only hope that Purple Lamp keeps it up, because it finally feels like it’s nearly cracked the Secret Formula.
Those with a Meta Quest 3 gathering dust in dire need of a new exclusive will have a bloody good time here, even if its occasionally formulaic nature risks holding it back from greatness.
There is a reason this campaign is called Journey, because it feels like you’ve been on a rollercoaster ride of rhythmic emotions that change how you view games like this. Part of me thought Enhance Games couldn't repeat the sublime brilliance of Tetris Effect, but it has done just that and then some.
Nice Dream has crafted a truly original narrative adventure here that will likely have a nuanced impact on everyone who plays it, and that alone makes it a triumph worth celebrating.
Rue Valley is a clever puzzle game that uses its time loop foundations to not only present a unique challenge for players but also to craft a rich narrative that will tug on the heartstrings.
Anno 117 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the addition of land combat and the ability to further customize your cities with diagonal roads and decorations brings even more satisfaction to the successful formula of a strategy series with a gameplay formula like no other.
But this is still a musou title, and it can only achieve so much within that framework without awkwardly bursting at the seams. With those restrictions in consideration, however, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a triumphant prequel that Zelda fans are going to adore.