TheGamer's Reviews
This is a game that understands the importance of fighting back against fascism and taking a stand as part of your own personal revolution, yet it’s often held back by gameplay that wants to distance itself from that idea as you fawn over cute puppies and fire off outlandish grenade launchers. Yet it’s still a start, and a bold step forward for a company that has long sat on the fence of political discussion. If you’re after more Far Cry, this delivers and pushes the formula forward into exciting new territory.
Metroid Dread suffers from some minor grievances, but overall it is a remarkable achievement in not just resurrecting a dormant and beloved series, proving its authority in the genre it inhabits, or exhibiting the kind of airtight design we’d expect from a title of this calibre. It is a remarkable achievement because it is one of those few rare games that sets itself an atmospheric goal and launches it towards and through the stratosphere. This, here, is one of 2021’s very best games - we’re always in for a treat when Samus returns.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a roll down retro memory lane with its charming classic arcade format. However, the game soon loses its shine with the sudden difficulty spike that makes it incredibly hard to enjoy in the later levels, despite the inclusion of accessibility options. This is a great choice for a party game when you want a local co-op title, but the lack of online multiplayer means the game begins to feel a little stale when playing alone, despite the wealth of levels, modes, and unlockables.
The difficulty without much progression and lack of any kind of guidance can make BPM feel a bit unwelcoming, which is a shame when its mechanics feel so great to learn. It's worth diving into for the core premise alone, but don't expect to have anyone hold your hand through hell.
If cyberpunk was the genre of 2020, time loops are undoubtedly the flavor of the second half of 2021. Aeon Drive subtly throws its pixelated hat into the proverbial zeitgeist with its fast-paced, pinpoint-accurate platforming that is as addicting and, at times, satisfyingly frustrating as any quality masocore title out there. Aeon Drive is a speedrunner's dream, offering hours of replayability for completionists and those looking to have their name atop online leaderboards.
FIFA 22 is just like any other FIFA game. It’s a very, very good football game, and with NBA 2K taking its eyes off the prize in favour of the State Farm drip, it’s left with a tap-in to be 2021’s best sports sim. HyperMotion makes a difference, create-a-club adds some personality, and everything else is the same. What more were you expecting?
Death Stranding remains a bizarre masterpiece on PS5, and the director’s cut only further cements that reputation with a number of worthwhile new ideas that enhance the act of delivering packages across a picturesque landscape of nothingness. The story of Sam Porter Bridges is overblown and wondrous, taking hold of you and refusing to let go as you’re dragged into an adventure that takes the medium to places it has never been before. It’s mindless self-indulgence of the highest order, and it’s rare to see a game deliver upon its overarching ambition in such a bold, uncompromising way in the modern era. For that very reason, it deserves to be celebrated.
When everything clicks, Sable is a great game. Once you've got your head around a quest, especially a longer one with a few moving parts, you can get lost in the world climbing buildings, finding secrets, unlocking puzzles, and gathering knick-knacks. Unfortunately, the game leaves you to your own devices far too often, and doesn't present an interesting enough world for you to want to get lost in it. I'd say at least I could enjoy flying around in it, but after my hovercraft conked out, I didn't even have that. It cares too much about how it wants to make you feel and not enough about how it's going to get you there.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a very good game that feels like it’s already been left behind by modern genre conventions. There’s nothing all that frustrating in that - we shouldn’t expect games, especially those made by studios the size of Ember Labs, to be constantly groundbreaking, but so much of Kena feels borrowed from elsewhere that it’s difficult to call it great. It’s a solid, enjoyable experience, and charming enough that you won’t care that you’ve played versions of it before. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a pretty nice wheel nonetheless.
From milking bugs to slaying frogs with jetpacks, Tails of Iron is an off-the-walls, brilliantly intuitive sidescroller, but it has a heart and keeps you gripped from start to finish as you slaughter a conveyor belt of would-be challengers. It’s not about avenging your father, not entirely - it’s about family and community. Vin Diesel would be proud. Sadly, it’ll probably get lost in the busy end-of-year shuffle among the triple-A powerhouses. But in the downtime between releases, make some room for Tails of Iron - it’s one of 2021’s best.
Lost Judgment delivers another fantastic thriller that ups the ante when it comes to its intricately woven plot and interesting cast of characters, all while making you question where the line is drawn between the law and true justice. And when all is said and done, you can sit and celebrate with some sushi.
Severed Steel feels like playing the Deathloop trailer. Not the actual game, specifically the trailer. Specifically the run shoot kick montage that comes in right at the end. Slick, stylised, and never slowing down for a second, Severed Steel looks set to launch without much fanfare, but if you want a game that gives you a great time and then leaves you alone, give it a try. KILL. THEM. ALL.
I’m not going to say “buyer beware” in regards to the Switch version of Skatebird. By all means, if you have younger gamers or Switch is your primary gaming device, then playing Skatebird on Switch will probably be just fine for you. However, if you have the option, go with the PC version of the game, especially considering that the game is coming to Xbox Game Pass next month. Even though many of its tropes are a bit played out within the genre, Skatebird is a game that knows it’s silly, and embraces it in a way that makes it fun to play (on PC).
I do truly wish I could call this a diamond in the rough or some classic in the making, but that’s just not the case. Aragami 2 is fine and while I am likely to revisit it one day, I wouldn’t say you need to rush out and play it right now.
NBA 2K22 is an almost impossible game to rate, because it’s a damn good basketball game at its core. The biggest problem is how it tries to be anything but a basketball game, and while that doesn’t damage the overall quality on the court, it makes it hard to root for it. It’s the ‘03 Lakers, and I hate the ‘03 Lakers.
All of that said, denouncing Eastward’s strengths and successes for any of the above would be disingenuous. It is a remarkable game that, while retro in ambition, will paradoxically go on to inspire the drive and uniqueness of future projects. It is clever, vibrant, and unapologetically original, and unless some magnificent twist of fate occurs over the next three months, it will undoubtedly go down as one of the best games of the year.
Deathloop is one of the most interesting triple-A games in recent memory and you owe it to yourself to play it.
Lost in Random is an okay 15-hour game, front-loaded with seven fantastic hours. It’s worth playing even if you don’t make it to the end, simply because there’s never been another game like it. Disney goths will delight in its charming blend of cute and macabre, and there are some legitimate thrills to be had with the combat system for strategy-brained players like myself. If it had continued to innovate with new battle mechanics and more cards to collect throughout the entire game, it would be an easy contender for game of the year for me. Unfortunately, it rests on its laurels too early, and the game as a whole suffers for it. I would be eager to return to Random were there ever a sequel, but I don’t think I’ll be revisiting Lost in Random again anytime soon.
True Colors makes each moment matter as it forms the identity of a woman I came to care for and relate to in ways that few games have managed to achieve. This brings me back to the sibling bond between Alex and Gabe, and how it feels like a virtual replacement for the bond between myself and the brother I wasn’t able to bid farewell to. I had that chance here, and I can’t describe how much that means to me. Without being overly poetic or needlessly saccharine, I’m glad more games are engaging with how we can learn, grow, and love as human beings, and the rewards that come with accepting such hardships along the way. Life is Strange: True Colors truly is something special.
Tales of Arise presents a refreshing sense of nostalgia in a shiny new package. At times it can misfire between its lovable but inconsistent cast of characters and political narrative, but there’s still a band of loveable heroes brandishing the classic Tales archetypes I’ve always adored. Perhaps it wields subtlety like a cudgel—placing Shionne, the woman who causes pain, and Alphen, the man who can’t feel pain, together—yet it’s that same ungraceful melodrama I remember being so fond of a decade ago. Arise elevates Tales back into the RPG spotlight, but it doesn’t leave the pieces of the past you loved behind.