Polygon's Reviews
GTA 5 feels like an infrastructural flavor in gaming at this point, delivering that same action driving and shooting, showing up to comfort you wherever you might want to play it. When novelty appears, like when I was driving through the night and Burial’s “Hiders” played on the in-game radio, apparently added back in 2017, it really stands out. But playing GTA 5 today is not generally an exercise in a new experience for millions of us. It is a return to the familiar, a known entity, and these new-gen versions of the game offer us repetition with slight differences. If that is what you’re angling to get out of your time in 2022, GTA 5 is there for you.
There’s a lot to do in Bear and Breakfast, a lot of story to unspool, and a lot of different characters to meet. You’ll pick up tons of trash and serve food to the humans that threw that trash on the ground. You’ll put down carpets and hang photos on walls, install plumbing and hire someone to fuel your fires.
Like each of the base game’s excellent quest lines, Flux reframed the way I approached my time as a Sleeper, and it once again revolved around that looming question of staying or leaving. This isn’t a spoiler. The game opens by asking: Do you wish to escape, find the truth, or make a life on this lunking station? And as you go about the day-to-day on The Eye, you’ll participate in the station’s many power struggles, and find new ways of organizing. Flux added additional depth to the game, effectively reframing the final choices I’d made during my first playthrough.
It delivers a story its creators have been building toward for years: A story about a boy who meets a girl, who then find their own path and, with it, the poise to walk on — in an endless sea, under the boundless sky. And that is no small thing.
Has Risk of Rain 2 had as much of an impact as Mario 64? Of course not. Its scope is decidedly narrow and its ambitions are confined to a small world focused on frantic combat in a straightforward, never-ending gameplay loop. But did Risk of Rain 2 reframe a game that I still consider close to perfection? Absolutely. Should Hopoo ever make a Risk of Rain 3, I’m hard-pressed to imagine what it will look like — my imagination swims at the thought of universes the studio hasn’t shown me yet.
But most importantly, Live A Live feels biblical in its attempt to tie all of human history into one narrative. But as much as Live A Live admirably tries to tell a story as vast as any game has ever told, time and time again, its characters are too flimsy to hold the weight.
With its ability to constantly pull the rug out from under you, As Dusk Falls doesn’t fade into a forgettable narrative experience we’ve seen a thousand times. Instead, it leaves its mark, with a long shadow cast by its sad but understandable characters’ hardships drawn across threads seemingly made of jagged wire. What will haunt you is whether the thread you chose really was the best one at the time. As in life, the answer will likely be: probably not.
Stray is the work of sly cat people, and it’s a triumph
The verdict, then, is that F1 22 should appeal to hardcore fans, who expect true-to-life fidelity in the vehicle performance, as well as more casually interested newcomers approaching this video game with a spectator’s curiosity. That blend of depth and accessibility is a hard needle for any sports developer to thread, and it rarely results in a transformative work. F1 22 isn’t one, but it didn’t need to be one — creating new cars, and the organic challenge of learning how to drive them on the limit, was transformation enough.
If you’ve been desperate for more Cuphead, this is likely the last new content you’ll see. Thankfully it’s a hell of an encore for Cuphead, Mugman, and now, Ms. Chalice.
With so many good brawls in Sunbreak, it’s frustrating that it falls victim to one of the biggest villains in AAA video games: bloat. I’d much rather see Sunbreak offer a shorter campaign with more of a focus on new monsters, and give me the option to fight Master Rank versions of the original roster at my leisure. But instead, I spent the opening hours of the expansion bashing familiar foes, just so I could get to the good stuff. As such, playing Sunbreak feels a bit like unwrapping an exciting present covered in too much tape.
That spark Capcom lit throughout the ’90s is one that changed the fighting game genre forever. And it’s one that’s been dim for quite some time. I’ve never forgotten the creativity it once sprinkled into each release, and I’ve been waiting for that version of the company to return. Time will tell whether Street Fighter 6 indeed brings Capcom back — but Capcom Fighting Collection has me more excited than ever.
Game lead Ben Esposito has described Neon White as “for freaks, by freaks.” And yet, identifying as a freak isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying Neon White. The game’s greatest strength may, in fact, be how welcoming it is. Its difficulty is perfectly curved, its story is disarmingly charming. But after an hour of restarting the same level, ignoring all my other responsibilities to cross the finish line just a little faster, I realized that Neon White may have turned me into a freak so gently that I didn’t even notice.
AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative boasts a compelling story, along with some great plot twists that caught me completely off guard. Its investigations are intriguing, and its Somnium dungeons are both colorful and foreboding. Nirvana Initiative is an incredibly eccentric game, bursting with vibrant characters, mind-bending puzzles, and an abundance of strange sci-fi detours. And once it builds momentum, it doesn’t let up. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say I love it.
However, I cannot help but think back to that giddy anticipation as I drove home with my copy of Dynasty Warriors 3 back in 2001. Asking myself if Three Hopes inspires the same feelings in me, I’d have to say no. It truly is fine, and all the proper elements are in place, but in many ways it’s also very expected and not particularly innovative. It makes me wonder, not for the first time, how much longer “it’s fine” will be enough in the world of Musou titles.
As with most horror endings, Alan comes away from his literal journey to hell and back a changed man. There’s no particularly profound message lurking here, which is actually kind of nice after all the chaos. Sometimes shit just happens, most of all in Hollywood. I leave this incarnation of Los Angeles with no regrets, but a fierce, bittersweet ache for the city I once called home, and surprisingly (and perhaps this is the benefit of distance), a twinge of affection for its insufferable movie bastards, many of whom probably, honestly, need an Edward Keller moment in their lives.
This game is so mechanically satisfying, so endearingly fun, that I couldn’t wait to hop back into the familiar environments, which remind me so much of crouching around that TV as a kid all those years ago.
On the surface, V Rising appears to be just another survival game, slathered with a different coat of paint. In many ways, it’s hard to argue otherwise. However, it manages to layer complex systems inspired by the popular mythology of the vampire to distinguish it from the sea of survival games. While V Rising hasn't completely satiated my thirst in its current form, I’m hopeful that it will somewhere down the line.
The Quarry is a blood-soaked, brutal, and janky summer camp rampage
The chaotic game breathes new life into franchise characters