XboxEra's Reviews
Shredder’s Revenge is an exquisitely executed example of modernising a classic genre and making you feel like this is how you remember the older games looking and feeling, despite being so much better.
It may not be the cheapest but it sure is an experience to enjoy. Having Jason’s ‘kill, kill, kill’ motif echoing around your head as you play it is not a prerequisite but it sure is fun
Rather nice graphics and great music are massively let down by unbalanced and poor gameplay, along with a paint-by-number, creepy as hell story. Technically I might have been interested in what this dev can do in the future, but God damn man. This game is gross.
The now par foThe good news is that you can enjoy the hell out of this game without spending a penny, but if you’re either prone to MTX-it is or really care about PVP it wildly throws off the endgame balance. For me, though this is a title I will be playing for a very long time while I wait for the next mainline entry in the series to hit. It is a great game, and with some love, care, and lack of greed it could become the best mobile title ever made.
While the campaign story is good and understandable it is easy to become overwhelmed by the forced dialogue and the RTS gameplay is intuitive but it can take a while to take it all in and program your hands to use the radial wheels efficiently. Overall I recommend Spellforce III : Reforced as a fan of RTS and ARPGs
It can get a bit samey towards the end, once you’ve seen all the tricks it has up its sleeve. Those tricks though are fantastic, and the control scheme behind it feels great. Few games have ever had as satisfying a gameplay loop for me, and if you have any type of decent gaming PC then this one is well worth a download
With boring, glacially paced gameplay, janky controls and far too many technical issues wiping out any sense of pleasure gained from playing through to the games anti-climax, I was left wanting.
Silt is a rather short, basic to control game. The story was intriguing from the start, and if you can look past how bland and unfun it is to play at times it might be worth checking out. For me though a nice art style and possibly interesting story simply isn’t enough to overcome how poor feeling and frustrating I found everything else.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 is an accessible, well-polished simulation/building hybrid from the developers over at Frontier. The campaign isn’t a real campaign, just a tutorial. The additional Jurassic Park: Chaos Theory missions are where the fun can be found. The weak points are the lack of depth and freedom in terms of building a unique park. Maybe it’ll happen in the third installment? A new film is coming after all, perhaps it’ll be a case of third time’s a charm? It’s not the best building game in town, but it does get the job done. And dinosaurs are cool.
AI: The Somnium Files is a fantastic game. Visual novels normally aren’t my thing, but I quickly found myself engrossed in the mystery. It has one of the best scripts I can remember in a game, and truly stellar voice acting. While this one is on Game Pass if it sounds at all interesting to you then I implore that you check it out. “Shadows!” “Threat, silhouette, A-set!”
Kao the Kangaroo is a well-meaning game, and despite some missteps, it is in my opinion one of the better 3D platformers of modern gaming. Heck, I’ll go as far as to say that I enjoyed Kao far more than I did the recent Crash 4, which was an incredible disappointment to me. For what Tate Multimedia is charging for this game, I say Kao the Kangaroo is easily worth buying for any 3D platforming enthusiast.
There is added depth and complexity to this title that elevates the experience above the solid game that went before it. Too many series continuations just recycle the same old tropes but in this instance, I can gladly state that this is not the case at all. If you are a fan of Sniper Elite 4 you will certainly enjoy playing this game. Available to play from day one via Xbox Game Pass, this is not (in my opinion) an experience that you can afford to miss.
Floppy Knights is a fun game that is really close to being a great one. Its major flaw for me is how long everything takes. From mission length to waiting on enemy turns, and the slow loading of the menu system it can be a drag. If you’re able to get passed all that though there is a clever deck builder here, with real challenge, great writing, solid music, and it’s available at launch on Xbox Game Pass.
Dolmen wants to put its mark in the Action RPG genre with a potentially intriguing Space/Horror tale that never really goes to space, and isn’t at all scary. It never feels good to play, broke on me constantly, and was an ugly maze of bland/blocky corridors. Retailing for $39.99 at launch I can’t in good conscious recommend this over almost any other game in the genre.
Evil Dead: The Game is pretty damned fun. For how long I’m not sure, but at $39.99 retail at launch, I think it's well worth the price if you have anyone to play with. Even solo I love playing as the demon and terrorizing at least 2 and sometimes 4 versions of Bruce Campbell. Post-launch support will help this title sink or swim in the long run, but at launch, this Deadite by Daylight is a damned good time.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a really good 6 hour game stretched to be nearly three times as long. If you find yourself loving it early-on then it might just hold up for you. Sadly I was done by then and had to force myself to go any further despite loving the story, writing, and characters. The gameplay eventually becomes something close to good, and it’s really damned pretty. For either $14.99 or a download on Xbox Game Pass it’s not the worst way to spend your time and money, but I can’t help but feel like the developers and Rabbit & Bear Studios bit off a little more than this game could chew.
If this game is a series of choices, each leading to more choices, leading to different ends only to begin again, then you only need to make one choice to begin. And that’s to choose to play it.
I was shocked by how incredible this game feels to play. Paired with a solid story, great music, and surprising depth it’s an easy recommendation on Game Pass or for its $20 price tag at launch. Whether you’re looking for a balls to the wall thrill ride or something that feels great and is chill to play you can customize the difficulty how you see fit. If anything you’ve read about here sounds interesting then you should check this fantastic game out.
All in all, the game is impressive and an apt tribute to its cinematic roots. Blood spurts satisfyingly as you strike enemies down, burning arrows soar overhead ominously and supernatural sections are sufficiently eerie yet intriguing. Personally, I found certain sections of combat to be punishingly tricky due to the lack of nearby save points so I would recommend playing through using the Cinematic difficulty if you want a relaxed experience.
After a slow start Loot River really grew on me. It took longer than I would have liked to start progressing but once I did things felt good enough combat-wise, incredible enough movement-wise, and intriguing enough roguelike-wise that I put in a lot of time (mostly on PC) before launch. It is available day one on Game Pass and is exclusive to Xbox and PC at launch. If you have the patience, you will be rewarded with one of the more unique takes on the genre, and I think that it is well worth checking out.