Polygon's Reviews
I play as Twine, a young child who was bedridden after an accident in which their older sister was seemingly killed while trying to recover treasure from a temple guarded by a magical barrier. The only beings who can pass through that barrier are giant stone golems, which can be controlled by magic. It's this magic that allows Twine to direct the golems from bed. So you're not just playing as a character; you're playing as a character who is controlling a monster.
Jedi: Fallen Order is a flawed, sometimes messy game, but it’s a Star Wars experience I didn’t know I wanted. And after finishing it, I definitely want more.
I still have stress dreams some day that I’m back in school and the exam is tomorrow and I haven’t studied; it’s nice to see a critical part of my life back in The Sims 4, where it can inspire a whole new set of anxieties and disasters.
The surprise in Sword and Shield is that I’m still finding things that surprise me, even after putting in so many hours. It’s in how Game Freak has made a linear game feel so much less linear.
Perhaps there’s an angle from which Superliminal is a satisfying, Portal-style thriller, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find that angle. And as the game was so fond of reminding me, perception is reality.
In present day, Need for Speed Heat seems limited, reminding me of all the things that made it distinct, but still hedging against them in case I don’t find them enjoyable. I’m confused about what would have made this game better, but the series seems just as confused about what it wants to be.
Despite these issues, I couldn’t help but love Planet Zoo for what it is: a game about trying to make the world a little better, by making sure some animals are well looked after. From its story beats about protecting animal welfare in the case of evil capitalists trying to drive profits, to the first time I was able to release a set of endangered pygmy hippos back into the wild, I felt like all my stress was working toward something.
Pistol Whip is one of the most intense, immediately gratifying action experiences of 2019, in VR or out, with a skill ceiling that’s much higher than it first appears.
This is the sort of thing that might keep smaller children occupied for a time, but buffet rules apply: The food doesn’t taste better just because there’s a lot of it. And that’s maybe the best thing I can say about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: There is certainly a lot of it.
Disco Elysium shines most when it gets weird. I was once pretending to be a psychic medium to get a woman to let me look through her supposedly haunted bookstore for a huge novelty polar bear freezer I could use to hide a very dead human body. I knew there were probably more reasonable options for places to store a corpse, but where's the fun in keeping it somewhere official and boring? This is what my character thought was best, and I was there for the ride.
Having been smitten by the core world-building gameplay of Death Stranding, I am stunned to realize that many of the game’s strongest, most appealing gameplay ideas (specifically the world-building and cooperation) are tossed aside in the final acts, in favor of a much more linear, scripted, cutscene-ridden experience. The freedom and sense of ownership I enjoyed while creating this world are dashed in favor of explaining and wrapping up a story that never had much going for it to begin with.
Afterparty is an ambitious game that works hard to deliver funny dialog and outright laughs.
It took three games, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 has that Nintendo magic
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a thrill ride that turns you into a monster
After seven years in development, Manifold Garden is a surreal masterpiece
Obsidian has pulled off the delicate task of creating an RPG that feels big while still keeping control of the overall scope of the game itself.
GreedFall wants to be a great big game, but without the resources of a huge publisher, many of its components feel half-baked.
For fit-curious Switch owners, or those of us who might skip the gym a little too often, it’s a wonderful way to feel a bit better about your health, even for just 15 minutes at a time.
These issues are trifling compared to the unexpected amount of enjoyment I got out of this little title.
Stela is a beautiful platformer, but not much else