Gameffine's Reviews
If it’s not obvious already, we do not recommend purchasing The Last of Us Part I on the PC at its current state. What could have been an easy moneymaker has turned into one of the most disastrous PC launches of recent times. The premium price makes the whole thing even more painful. The quality of the PC port is only doing a disservice to the otherwise excellent experience. The only logical thing to do is wait patiently until the glaring issues are fixed and pick the game when a sale comes around.
If you stare long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back at you. Dredge stops just a tad short of greatness owing to its occasional repetitive nature and indie budget, but that is but a small nitpick against the overwhelming positives it provides. Fishing, inventory management, saving for upgrades and exploration – each aspect of Dredge is gamified just right, and sandwiched effectively to keep you coming back for more. Clocking in at a good 12–15 hours to complete the story, this thalassophobic collect-a-thon provides enough fun, excitement, horror and mystery to tide you through this quaint fishing adventure!
Tchia is definitely a game worth checking out if you are looking for an open-world adventure that offers freedom, fun, and diversity. It celebrates New Caledonian culture and showcases its rich history, folklore, and traditions. However, it is also a bit too ambitious for its own good. It's overwhelmingly cluttered map size and navigation system may be frustrating at times. Despite its simplistic visuals, it is capped at a low frame rate of 30 fps on PS5 and is riddled with quite a few technical glitches. Still, the fact that the game comes free with the Playstation Plus Extra makes it a must-try for folks who love a calm pacific adventure.
The tag line for WWE2K23 is “Even Stronger”. In all fairness, that’s a pretty accurate statement. Everything that the last game did has become better and “Stronger”. However, high load times, finicky online play, and weird collision detection remains the game’s weakness. So much so that they stand in even more contrast than last time, because how vastly improved other areas of the game are. 2K tried a few different things last year, and got a lot of feedback on them. I am happy to say they took most of it and resolved it in WWE2K23. Its a huge improvement over the last iteration and speaks well of the team behind it promising even better things in the future.
Despite Scars Above’s stellar visual presentation and challenging combat, it suffers from lackluster story-telling and repetitive gameplay. Thankfully it does manage to redeem itself to some extent by effectively blending its exploration with combat and puzzle-solving even though it may get frustrating at times. If you like titles like Dead Space, Returnal, or Control, it may be worth checking out. But considering its inconsistent animations and glitches, it’s best to wait for a sale on this one.
Like A Dragon: Ishin is everything I expected it to be and more. While it is not exactly a Kiwami version of the original, it is a significant upgrade. Its city of Kyo is brimming with life and is filled with countless highly engaging side activities that will easily get you side-tracked from its great main story. The beat-em-up action of its wild dance of swords and pistols puts up an engaging display of grotesquely gory action that never loses its steam, that shares the same DNA with Yakuza Zero and Kiwami.
Pharaoh is a fun city-building simulation that is challenging to understand, but very rewarding when players manage to pull it off. It is definitely one of those games where players will either spend an hour and quit, or continue to play until the major half of a day is over. Players looking for a challenge and don’t have a problem with the dated graphics should definitely try this out.
Returnal on PC is one of the rare blessings of this late generation. It’s challenging, rhythmic bullet-hell shooting, with a satisfying combat loop and an unconventional way of storytelling that make it one of the riskiest yet rewarding experiences in PlayStation’s long line of stellar exclusives. If you like titles like Doom: Eternal, FURI, or Cuphead, then look no further than this. However, for casual beginners, this one can be one hell of a nightmare. Still, if you’ve got the balls to go through its steep learning curve, there’s probably nothing that you can’t handle!
Wild Hearts is an amazing game that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Monster Hunter titles as a formidable contender. Its fast-paced combat mechanics feel satisfying, and the integral Karakuri tech allows you to conjure things out of thin air – an opening window to countless possibilities. Through and through, it is a challenging experience that feels oddly satisfying once you manage to overcome the hardships of Kemonos. And the Kemonos themselves are undoubtedly the biggest star of the overall show. The only things that can be a bit of an issue are the long matchmaking times and the complex skill trees that may feel overwhelming from a newcomer’s perspective. Definitely worth a buy!
Tails: The Backbone Preludes is the developers’ move of getting rid of the sour taste left behind by Backbone. The move largely pays off thanks to an emotionally moving narrative that emphasizes player-agency, relatable characters and extremely good-looking visuals. The gameplay may be a bit too bare bones, but the story more than makes up for it. Now that the past is fixed, can we have the full-blown sequel with all the unrealized gameplay mechanics the series very much deserves?
Despite all these complaints, the boys and I found ourselves playing the game non-stop until 3 in the morning. There’s something oddly satisfying in the gameplay loop that makes you return for more. Most of the game’s shortcomings can be easily fixed by patches and content updates. Speaking about patches, the fourth one just dropped as I was writing this review. The patch increases enemy spawns, made an enemy less spongy and introduced a slew of bugfixes. So yeah, I see Perish becoming a sleeper hit among the co-op crowd if this keeps up. Plus, the reasonable price-point is also a boon. But… I’m not sure if I can recommend the game at its current state wholeheartedly. There’s fun to be had with friends, but your mileage will vary significantly. A safe bet would be to keep an eye on this one.
Loretta is a highly engaging and expertly crafted psychological thriller that wears its inspirations on its sleeves. The snappy presentation and player agency manage to elevate the gripping story to a whole new level. The branching narrative and the replayability that comes with it are bonuses. An essential recommendation from Gameffine!
For all intents and purposes, Wanted: Dead ironically captures all the worse aspects of a seventh-generation action game. The generic story capable of putting an insomniac to sleep is accompanied by awful voice acting, bad editing and flashy but shallow combat. The finishers look cool as hell but that isn’t enough to save the game from being a dud. Wanted: Dead is a hard pill to swallow even for the most hardcore jank lover.
Very often for AAA games, the hype is built months prior to their official release. There will be story trailers, gameplay footages, interviews with the developers, months of drip-fed content that would build up an idea of what the final product might be. However, very often it so happens that the final product is different from our expectations if not far removed. The game’s actual quality becomes an afterthought in a series of marketing campaigns and publicity cycles. However, when games like Hi-Fi Rush are shadowdropped, the minimalist strategy essentially forces the title to speak for itself. Audiences judge the title on how fun it is to play; it’s the purest test of the product. And Hi-Fi Rush passes this test with flying colors. The love that the ex-Platinum Games developers, now in Tango Gameworks, poured into the game, it shows! It’s got pop-culture references from Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures, Pokemon, Xenogears and even Twin Peaks!
Miles Morales is an intense streamlined experience, that provides some much-needed perspective on the ongoing story of the Spider-Man saga. With the sequel coming up soon, where an epic team-up of the spider-men is teased, this part of the story becomes quintessential to understanding where Miles comes from, and how he has grown. With powers and a personality that set him apart from Peter Parker, Miles Morales uplifts himself from the misnomer that he is just the other Spider-Man. This is a fresh take, which makes him equally important to the story that Insomniac wants to passionately tell. Miles, from the game, might sometimes make a misstep owing to the fact that he is an amateur, but the game does not. Insomniac ain’t new to this, and the mastery with which they wield this game shows that they are in the big leagues now.
If you have played the likes of Subnautica and The Forest, Green Hell: Spirits of Amazonia is undeniably worth checking out. As for existing Green Hell players, it would be a complete no-brainer to miss out on this freebie. While the story can be a bit of a mixed bag when compared to the original campaign, the great sense of exploration and survivability still remains intact at its core. As for newcomers, if you are a fan of survival games and looking for an intense and challenging experience, look no further than this
A Space for the Unbound is an emotional odyssey of love, pain, growth, acceptance, and healing. It is an easy game to play and love. Once someone’s hooked, it’ll be challenging to set the game aside before the 12-hour runtime ends. Though the players can often feel that the game is going in circles, the ability to bring the characters’ lives full circle is a beautiful experience.
As a platformer, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake doesn’t reinvent the wheel (few games have). It’s a fairly standard platformer, but has all the ingredients that make a fan go “jumping jellyfish!”. A fun story and the signature humour, combined with varied, good-looking levels and a campaign that doesn’t overstay its welcome, do help in negating some of its glaring flaws such as the lacklustre combat and unrewarding exploration. If you’re not familiar with SpongeBob and want just want to buy in for the platforming experience, there are better games out there. But if you’re in for SpongeBob, The Cosmic Shake won’t disappoint.
Overall, Mahokenshi is a great deck building strategy game with easy to grasp gameplay, decent enough plot and beautiful artworks. The cards are varied enough to keep the ball rolling―the more time you spend on the map, the more powerful cards you get with challenging enemies. I would see, Mahokenshi might be a good stress inducer rather than a buster, as you’ll have to think carefully at every step. That said, prepare to die a lot!
Overall, Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song Remastered still remains a solid JRPG classic with a unique battle system, an intriguing story, and a great art style. However, it also suffers from quite-a-few pacing issues and lack-luster localization. The game’s open-world aspect can be overwhelming, and the battle system’s depth is not always effectively utilized by the game’s difficulty. While it is a true classic in its own right, the new generation of players may find it lacking due to its aged visuals and choppy animations. As for the series veterans, it is a love letter to the bygone era.