TheGamer's Reviews
Silicon Dreams is a tremendous detective game. The way you grill these androids for information is highly engaging. I was surprised many times by the responses I got from my interrogations and the narrative continued to get more and more compelling as I went on. If the idea of delving into the minds of androids to see what makes them tick sounds like a fun time, then you should experience the dystopian nightmare that is Silicon Dreams.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is clearly a labour of love, and I can see that in everything it does. The ambition that bleeds into its story, characters, and gameplay are all evident, but the execution is just sorely lacking everywhere it matters. Perhaps my perspective on past games is warped by nostalgia, but this isn’t the road I imagined Abe and company going down. It’s in the right direction, but they’ve veered off course and landed themselves in a ditch.
Outriders would have been a much better game had the campaign been half as long and the end game had twice as much content. I had fun exploring the dozen or so environments throughout the story mode, but the game doesn’t start firing on all cylinders until the gear you get becomes meaningful. The disposable nature of gear during the campaign/leveling process makes the game feel a lot more shallow than it actually is, and getting players to that end-game grind sooner would likely have exposed a lot more players to the best that Outriders has to offer.
The music is as diverse, and I often found myself just sitting back, taking it all in, because the second I picked up the controller, the magic clashed with how stiff the character was. That toppled with awkward controls that often stutter or outright don't work, and Wonderworld fails in the most important part of any platformer - movement.
If you love building games, creating elaborate strings of traps, playing the bad guy, and generally living your best island life scamming tourists, Evil Genius 2 is for you.
Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not you should snag the next-gen version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 boils down to one thing: do you want to spend the additional $10? If you purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game for PS4, you’ve already paid that $10, so you’re already entitled to the PS5 version. Unfortunately, if you bought the physical disc version of the game, you’ll have to shell out the full price of the game if you decide to upgrade. Is it worth it? Sure. But it’s already a 5-star game. The technical enhancements aren’t going to immensely increase the overall fun factor and experience of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. And, really, that should be all that matters.
It Takes Two is, without a doubt, the best co-op game you can play right now. It’s much more ambitious and bigger budget than A Way Out, which was still brilliant in its own way. Josef Fares and the team at Hazelight take things to the next level here, and I can only imagine what they’ll do when they’re inevitably given a triple-A budget. Grab a friend by the hand and pull them through an adventure unlike any other as soon as you can - you won’t regret it.
You might actually like Rise better than World, as it brings back some of the strategic variety while building on more recent quality-of-life updates. It's a shame that the Switch holds the game back in small ways, but this is a contender for best in the series. If post-launch support is as good as it was for World, this game could easily rise above the rest.
The tagline for the game’s developer, Roomah Gaming, reads “We produce art.” Memories of East Coast is a short, yet wonderful experience that definitely delivers on that statement.
I would highly recommend checking this out if you're looking for an original indie experience. I tend to criticize games when they make me run around in circles, but I'm more than willing to make an exception for Loop Hero.
This is a game in between a rock and a hard place, and while it will definitely find its audience, it won’t make it onto any list of essential RPGs as its predecessor did.
Had the gameplay been tuned up a bit more I could see myself recommending this, but unfortunately, Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is one game that feels like it came back from the dead a little too soon.
Ultimately, Super Mario 3D World, in this package, is the best that game has ever been, with the increased speed and ease of multiplayer access making it far more enticing than ever before. Bowser’s Fury, meanwhile, is essentially the Super Mario Odyssey DLC that never was. It feels like Odyssey’s level and game design sensibilities, but placed in the Super Mario 3D World game engine, with all of the power-ups and quirks that game has to make something truly unique. Putting both of these games in one package is the best decision that Nintendo has made in a long while, as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is one of the best Mario offerings available on Nintendo Switch, which is lofty praise given the existence of Super Mario Maker 2. Now it just needs the option to play again, but as Luigi.
Little Nightmares 2 is another incredible trip into the horrible world that Tarsier Studios has created.
If Persona 5 was about forming bonds with new people and recruiting them for a common cause, Persona 5 Strikers is about taking the Phantom Thieves and proving that the friendship they share is lasting, that it can and will endure any hardship. I think, right now, that message is immeasurably important, and hits harder than a bullet formed from the Seven Deadly Sins.
I wanted to love Destruction AllStars. I still do. There’s just not enough there to make it worth my while right now. A couple of times, I ran into a weird technical issue where I would jump into a brand-new car, but it just wouldn’t move. I think that issues like this can certainly be fixed in a future patch, though. I also know that the development team of Lucid Games has a year’s-worth of content planned for the game. As such, although I can’t recommend playing Destruction AllStars right now, I do have high hopes for the future of the game. Especially since the car combat genre is ripe for the taking with no new Twisted Metal in sight.
The Medium itself never hits a flat note. I beat the game in two long sittings, and there was never a point during either that I felt like the game dragged, or could’ve used a little more polish, or left too many loose ends hanging. It’s a lean, compelling experience that says what it has to say, then leaves you to grapple with the specifics afterwards. There are images, lines, and ideas from The Medium that I’ll likely take to my grave thanks to this approach, as it puts the onus on the player to piece everything together. You have to wrap your brain around the spirit world’s twisted logic so much that it becomes a part of you, as you live through Marianne’s pain with her and help to navigate her trauma.
n an alternate universe, Hitman became one of the best selling series of all time, its influence akin to something like PUBG. In this better world, where the pandemic never even happened, Hitman spawned a genre of its own - the Hitmanlike, where developers put level design and systemic play right at the top of their priority list. Alas, we can’t break through the skin of the world and reach that universe. We’re stuck here. In our world, Hitman stands alone. There’s nothing like it, and Hitman 3 is an outstanding refinement of that unique 21-year-old recipe. Just watch out for that secret ingredient. (It’s poison).
I’m V and the game is Silverhand - I can’t get Cyberpunk 2077 out of my head. I’ve had it a week and played 70 hours, which is probably about as healthy as scooping out my face and replacing it with electronics, but it didn’t feel like work. Like a digital personality loaded onto a biochip, it felt like stepping into another life for a while. It’s a life I can’t wait to relive.
In a word, Worms Rumble is great. It’s fun and as hilarious as ever, whether it be from an over-the-top-kill or the witty banter from the Worms themselves. I worry that the steep learning curve may turn some players off, but if you’re able to stick with it, you’ll have a ton of fun in the latest game from a longstanding franchise that keeps on delivering.