TheGamer's Reviews
Planet Coaster 2 will take you on a new adventure that combines the charm and joy of the original with its own brand-new highs. While there are a couple of dips along the way, they are short-lived and simply part of the experience that doesn’t diminish the joy.
It’s a shame because everything else Black Ops 6 iterates on is a smashing success, synthesizing the best elements of past games to create something greater. This is the first truly unique CoD experience we’ve received in half a decade. Omni-movement and more old-school gameplay design have gotten me excited about multiplayer again, while its rendition of Zombies might be my favorite in franchise history. Outside of several standout missions, however, I wasn’t impressed with the campaign, but I’ve begrudgingly come to accept that campaigns just don’t matter to the wider community at this point. The real value is in the multiplayer and Zombies; in that regard, Black Ops 6 is a strong return to form.
Passionate fans looking for an excuse to replay Aloy’s debut adventure with lovely visuals and a fresh list of trophies will find this remaster a no-brainer, but for a more sceptical soul like myself, it’s hard to look past the lack of quality of life improvements that only serve to highlight how far things have come since Horizon Zero Dawn first arrived, and how hard it’s become to look back.
Unfortunately for Redacted, probably the biggest thing working against it is its release date. The game comes out on October 31, right on the heels of Hades 2's Olympic update. However, should you get bored of Melinoe, Redacted is a great substitute with fresh ideas.
As modest as it is, it still accomplishes what it set out to do. It's a good, fun Life is Strange game, and there isn't much else like that. It maintains the delicate balance between campy and comforting throughout, but you just can't help but notice that the tightrope is only a few feet off the ground.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a Dragon Age game like no other, and that alone will put some people off. But it brings with it the traditions of excellent character writing, strong world building through narrative quests, and offers the most exciting combat the series has ever seen.
Shadows Of The Damned: Hella Remastered is a nice throwback to an era that feels more distant every day, and it still holds up as an adventure that you want to go over from beginning to end in a single sitting. Unfortunately, the remaster ends up being undercooked, with some lacking features and issues that prevent it from being a better package.
Yakuza Kiwami remains one of the best stories that RGG has ever told, and showing its age a smidge doesn’t diminish that. Showcasing Kiwami on another platform to welcome new fans into the fold can only be a good thing, and it’s impressive just how well it runs on Switch. Most importantly, now Majima Everywhere can really be everywhere as he just became portable.
Despite its combat and platforming only being serviceable and the overall package needing a bit more polish, Mutants Unleashed still managed to be a turtle surprise because of how much love and understanding it has for the source material. It may not reach the same gameplay heights of Shredder’s Revenge or Splintered Fate, but it has one of the best tales to tell of any TMNT game.
Jackbox Survey Scramble is a solid showing which offers a nice selection of short simple games to slip into your rotation as filler. The codes for the room remain on screen throughout, meaning people can drop in and out of the games for maximum flexibility.
Just like the first game, Shiro and the Coal Town highlights the joy in ordinary tasks like collecting bugs and getting to know your neighbours, but with its stronger cast of characters, array of side quests to complete, and well-developed trolley racing minigame, it has a lot more to offer and is a significant improvement on Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation.
Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven is likely to be your weirdest friend’s favorite RPG. It is a playfully obtuse, mechanically deep outing paired with a story that is almost charming in its simplicity. It feels dated, but it also features a singular vision that sets it apart from other games in the genre. I suspect, at the end of the day, it will carry on the legacy of the Saga franchise and be a divisive title, which is probably a good thing. We need more divisive games.
Cozy Game Pals delivered a sweet experience perfect for those who want an effective short Halloween story and have a place in their hearts for how games used to look a couple of decades ago.
It frustrates me that few of these improvements trickled down into Sonic Generations, but as a whole product, it’s hard to fault a package that gives us a faithful remaster of one of the most beloved Sonic games, and a great Shadow game to boot. I only hope now that Sega trusts itself to look to the future some more, and keeps moving ahead with the new formula that Sonic Frontiers - and now Shadow Generations - promises us.
Even when my time leaping into enemies was interrupted by these technical issues, Unknown 9: Awakening’s excellent cast of characters and inventive soul-hopping combat mechanics kept me invested all the way through its gloriously last-gen adventure. With how depressing this generation has been at times, that is absolutely meant as a compliment.
This is the kind of indie game that I would love to see succeed, and the next steps post-launch, both in terms of ongoing development and community support, will be crucial in determining whether it’s remembered as a Justinian or an Honorius.
But I also hope that it experiments more with its ideas, because the Overlord’s realm and the platforming stagnate pretty early on, never reaching the heights they could. That being said, the game does a brilliant job at making you feel like each character, all while stepping foot into lovingly hand-crafted worlds brought to life with stunning pixel art that perfectly encapsulates what makes these worlds so iconic all these years later.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is a return to form for a series that stumbled as it arrived on the Switch and barely steadied itself with Mario Party Superstars' greatest hits runout. Jamboree brings creative boards and a range of enjoyable minigames to the table, but overcooks the single-player stuff.
Neva is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, from the watercolour art style to the clever direction.
While I’m sure that’s not going to be enough for those who have already played hours of Worms Armageddon or who already own it on PC (which remains the best way to play), for everyone else it’s a nice way to experience the series at its best. Hopefully, above all else, it’s a reminder to Team17 what makes Worms works so well - and it isn't when it's trying to be a battle royale.