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1186 games reviewed
74.8 average score
80 median score
52.5% of games recommended

Polygon's Reviews

Unscored - Dave the Diver
Jun 29, 2023

What makes Dave the Diver work so well is wanting to see what comes next. In another game that just tacked on mechanics and plot devices with no plan, it could feel like the padding around a threadbare premise. But Dave’s kitchen sink approach somehow feels like a perfectly logical, if absurd, escalation — like a Tim Robinson sketch in game form. It’s a teetering pile of mechanics and minigames that never gets around to collapsing because the balancing act is just too much fun.

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Jun 28, 2023

Even with its rough edges, Battlebit Remastered is doing an amazing job of recapturing the feel of Battlefield’s good old days. A lot has changed since 2010, and you might not be able to get the old Battlefield squad to come out of retirement — but if you’re looking to try, Battlebit Remastered might be your best shot.

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Jun 25, 2023

Where Dark Descent pushes beyond XCOM is in mission selection. The campaign is somewhat linear, but it achieves an open-world feel by allowing you to uncover new areas of the world map - various settlements and installations on the planet Lethe, which is undergoing a global crisis. While it's required that you complete the main story objectives in each sector, you can also return to each one to scrounge up missing items and complete sub-tasks at a later time. Dark Descent's structure even allows you to evacuate mid-mission, preserving the mental and physical health of your squad members after it all goes sideways. I've had extreme moments of highs and lows, as I've evacuated multiple times when pursuing certain objectives, salvaging what I could and placing my squad in the med-bay before re-deploying with new roster members. Do this too often, and the alien threat will intensify over time. This creates an illusion of a persistent environment, one that's evolving of its own autonomy.

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Jun 21, 2023

Final Fantasy 16 is incredible when it doesn’t try to say anything meaningful

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Jun 16, 2023

These moments rival those of the best stealth games, when the slightest noise can mean revealing your position to much more powerful foes. Frictional has made a name for itself by creating these moments out of elegant yet terrifying systems. The Bunker’s standout achievement, then, is creating a nonlinear sandbox where you’re constantly learning from your own bad habits. I’ve never been so conscious of how much noise everything makes around me in a digital space, cautiously entering rooms to avoid kicking an empty wine bottle or activating the flashlight intermittently when I knew the monster was near. As McKee described, it’s your mundane actions, in conjunction with the crude and hostile setting, that create a solid ceiling of sound — one that only grows thicker the longer you inhabit the bunker.

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Unscored - Homebody
Jun 10, 2023

These small but persistent issues aren’t deal breakers, but they cut the tension. Homebody didn’t terrify me to my core, but I still found myself compelled to uncover its secrets, and it only takes a few hours to complete. The plot leaves key points up for interpretation, and as such, this is the sort of game that I’ll be digesting for quite some time. It’s not the same brand of horror as jump scares or gory deaths, but it’s unnerving all the same.

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Jun 8, 2023

Super Mega Baseball 4 is replete with goofy energy, and baseball is the perfect sport for it, even if it doesn’t always come across on TV or in the most “realistic” video games. And like every previous iteration in the series, this is the best digital version of the sport you could hope to play.

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Unscored - Street Fighter 6
May 30, 2023

Street Fighter 6 is the ultimate fighting game toolbox

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Unscored - Diablo IV
May 30, 2023

More busywork doesn’t lessen the series-signature lootfest appeal

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May 29, 2023

It’s easy to understand why people played this game and then became obsessed with it, why you can trace some people’s careers through the game.

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But if you go in without the expectations of Arcane, Convergence is a great adventure. Ekko faces off against some great boss fights against champions like Camille, Warwick, and Jinx. These boss fights force you to play differently; Camille uses the high ground and hextech tools to control the battlefield, while Warwick is more of a raw force of nature that is best dodged and controlled. Seeing these champions outside of League is a reminder of the promise of Riot Forge games. As it turns out, many of these characters do best outside the confines of a competitive game. Convergence offers another chance for them to shine in their element.

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May 24, 2023

Not even Resurgence’s nearest spiritual ancestors, classic ’90s point-and-click adventures Star Trek 25th Anniversary or Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity, have captured that essential human element that makes for a great Star Trek story. Resurgence ties a worthwhile cast of characters to an interstellar adventure. Does Resurgence qualify as “great Star Trek”? Probably not, but it’s hard to argue that any video game has come closer.

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May 23, 2023

Auroch Digital has done a great job of deploying retro visuals and the trappings of older shooters alongside modern sensibilities to bring the game to life. The abyss of Chaos looks downright disturbing, even captured through an old-school lens. These trippy environments and crude daemon designs combine with visceral and satisfying combat to make Boltgun a blast, and it’s nice to explore the world of Warhammer through such a ridiculous, blood-smeared filter.

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Unscored - Humanity
May 21, 2023

Ultimately, focusing too closely on any puzzle solution misses what’s special about Humanity. In the days since playing, I’ve found myself most often thinking not about a specific mechanic, but what each level looks like once completed. By removing my ability to influence the stage, the completion screen presents the purest form of the game’s beautiful aesthetic: an unending river of people jumping, swimming, climbing. Orderly, but overwhelming. Moving, united, toward a singular goal.

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Unscored - Inkbound
May 18, 2023

Inkbound, like all early access games, is bound to change as updates are pushed out — but what I’ve played thus far is a strong foundation. Presently, my main gripe is that NPCs feel less distinct than I’d like, which makes it hard to invest myself in the story. I do, however, appreciate the nod to creative writing dictums in the form of naming the player character “Needless,” with commentary from the supporting cast saying that you’re not a real character if you don’t have needs.

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These are moments where I’m gently reminded that true player freedom is, of course, a fallacy. Nintendo created this world, and I inhabit it. Weeks, months, or years from now, I may affect it in ways its creators didn’t intend, but still — I will be using the tools they provided. The brilliance of Tears of the Kingdom lies in how well it imparts the fantasy of player freedom. Sure, Nintendo shakes me out of the daydream every now and then, and in those moments, I see flashes of its old rigid self. But no matter: At some point, I’ll fully escape its watchful gaze.

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May 3, 2023

The game currently has a campaign that plays out over the course of a month in-game, and the player is periodically presented with choices — do they stay loyal to glorious Acaristan, or do they cast off their shackles and choose to be an inside man for the rebellion? Developer Crazy Rocks is working on an endless mode with more paperwork and police ranks, which I’m looking forward to. The campaign can be completed in a few sittings, and it’s punctuated by some fun choices — but I’m hungry to keep checking for contraband.

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Unscored - Cassette Beasts
May 2, 2023

At the end of the day, Cassette Beasts is a remix of a song you like. Just don’t expect a remaster.

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Unscored - Redfall
May 1, 2023

If this tone takes center stage in the back half of the story, combined with plot developments that add some momentum to the proceedings, it may be easier to overlook the game’s weaker aspects and appreciate it as a compelling narrative work. At this point, though, the town of Redfall is sucked too dry of liveliness for players to be invested in whether its vampires triumph or not.

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Unscored - Mr. Sun's Hatbox
Apr 30, 2023

Much of the game involves strategizing around these quirks when possible. Upon snapping a guard's neck, for example, the "guilty conscience" trait sends your character hopping around in an uncontrollable panic for a few brief yet potentially pivotal seconds during which they might blunder into a trap or the sightline of another guard. To circumvent this, you can take care to kill exclusively (and presumably more impersonally) with weapons, or you can drag each body to some secluded area where it's safe for your assigned agent to shake off any post-murder jitters.

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