Polygon's Reviews
Raid: World War II disappoints on all levels. It's not that one thing in particular is badly broken; it's that so many aspects of the game are clumsy or incomplete. It made playing the game a chore, even in its best moments. Sometimes a terrible movie or game will still have things that make it enjoyable — hilariously cheesy dialogue or over-the-top action that I end up liking in spite of the low budget or poor production values. With Raid, there's just nothing here for me, and I can't imagine there being much here for anyone else.
Superstar Saga is the real meat of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, and it's nothing but approachable, engaging, real fun and the addition of the wearisome Bowser's Minions doesn't take away from it. There's nothing new in Superstar Saga itself, but what's there is worth it.
If you can get past the microtransactions, Shadow Wars seems set to provide a much meatier extended playtime than Shadow of Mordor ever offered. But more than anything, that's my biggest disappointment with Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Everything about it seems to come with a caveat, some small annoyance or two that you need to dig past to get to the still-very-fun game underneath. The Nemesis System is still a wonder that has yet to be replicated. The movement and combat are thrilling.
I didn't go into Battle Chasers: Nightwar expecting much of anything, given the development studio's relative youth as a company and the spotty record of Kickstarted games. However, Nightwar's focus on style and character, coupled with a mostly excellent combat system, kept me hooked for much longer than I had imagined. Whatever your familiarity with its source material, this game builds a beautiful world with a surprising amount of depth just beneath the surface.
When I think of my time with Cuphead, instead of frustration I'll remember the dozens of tiny breakthroughs, when the impossible became possible, and a game that built an identity around difficulty helped me to feel, however briefly, undefeatable.
By the time I fought Mother for the third and last time, I was prepared to throw my controller because of how quickly she evaporated my energy and health bars the first two times. Ruiner is one of those games that is unabashedly difficult for the sake of being difficult. It demands you face waves upon waves of the same enemies and mini-bosses before you can even see the final, incredibly trite cinematic. Are you the ruiner or the ruined? I won't spoil the answer that the game offers up, but I will say that I sure didn't feel triumphant when I finally set the controller down.
FIFA 18 is still seductively deep and delivers excitement. It gave me the feeling that there is still so much to learn about what appears to be a rather straightforward sport, and that the game would gladly help me understand. This is always the time of year when I ask myself why I don't just spend all of my time playing FIFA, and FIFA 18 poses the question more forcefully than ever.
Turn 10 has become highly proficient in taking this basic mechanic and turning it into a full on fantasy, of conquest, of acquisition, of personalization.
Pairing the tactical brilliance of the Total War series with the rich lore of the Warhammer universe is a natural fit, and Total War: Warhammer 2 fulfills the promise of that combination. It is a deep and challenging experience with an epic story to tell. It is also one of the most overwrought games of the year, a game where complexity seems to be piled on for complexity's sake.
Story has never been the pull of the Ys franchise for me, though, and if you're not yet familiar with the series, it's not why you should give this game a chance. And make no mistake: You should give Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana a chance. Developer Nihon Falcom has always been talented, but this project represents a new high for the studio, a game where each piece comes together and interlocks in a way that feels damn near perfect. Don't let the obscure name fool you; forgettable story aside, this is one of the best action-RPGs of this generation.
Of course, it's no surprise that NBA 2K18 looks good; the series has looked the part since its advent on the Dreamcast, staying relevant visually and staking out its own part of basketball culture. NBA 2K18 continues the trend, capturing the feel of basketball's urban centers in The Neighborhood.
Heat Signature is one of the tightest indie action games I've played, packing a maximum amount of excitement into a minimum amount of time and space. My first few hours with the game were genuinely wonderful, filled with rapid-fire moments of delight and triumph. But when I hit my personal skill ceiling, I could do no more than repeatedly bang my head against it. I respect Heat Signature. I admire its success in accomplishing with such skill what it set out to do, and if it had been more forgiving, it wouldn't be as tense. Heat Signature's laser focus on in-depth mechanical play with high consequence is at once what made it satisfying for me to play and what made it easy to put down and walk away from when I hit the limits of my tactical creativity.
Danganronpa V3 is one-of-a-kind. It got me attached to characters within minutes before ripping out my heart. It twisted and turned in every direction, and there was always something new and even more terrifying on the way, leaving me little time to mourn my fallen friends. This may be a game that's mostly about reading text, but it still managed to make my heart race.
It's hard to deny how much of a blemish Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite's visuals are, but it would still be a mistake to skip this entry for that reason alone. The fast tagging system and the Infinity Stones change up the series' standard mechanics and open up so many options for creative play, no matter your skill level. Infinite is expressive, exciting and fun to play, but the visuals inspire more eyerolls than the hype this series deserves.
NBA Live 18 is best for a very personal brand of basketball, focusing on a created superstar and the moves that make him stand out in a game that skews more toward individual play than teamwork.
Death of the Outsider offers a standard take on the Dishonored formula, tracking closely to its admirable ethos of freedom and choice in a world of subtleties and illusions. It's a decent finale with a solid central character. But it makes little attempt to try anything new, a sign that all the best ideas are likely going into whatever comes next.
A lot of different things can happen in Divinity: Original Sin 2; it's an RPG that is overwhelmingly about planning ahead yet still being completely taken by surprise.
Hiveswap: Act One is brief, but I already have a lot of hope for the world and cast introduced here. (And the music. Oh god, yes, the music.) There's a lot to see, and anyone looking for a light-hearted adventure will have a great time. Despite its minor bugs and short length, both Homestuck devotees and those who never experienced the webcomic will find a fantastic, humorous introduction to this new pocket of an already-massive universe.
Although EA Vancouver planned a three-year rejuvenation of their hockey series, NHL 18 seems like it's on the downside of generational sports games. While Threes adds some zest and significant features, that's the only notable addition to the game. When the introduction menu pops up and “What's New” offers only three choices (one being a tutorial), 2017 is not a good year. NHL 18 is (as always for this series) more than competent, but for the first time in a while, it's a “wait for next year” revision.
To call Metroid: Samus Returns a remake feels unfair. Remakes are old games with new coats of paint: an upgrade in resolution here, reworked artwork there. Samus Returns is far more than that. It's a top-to-bottom reimagining, bringing the bones of a game that's over 25 years old into the modern era with fantastic results.