Polygon's Reviews
Pikmin 4 is a game for those who want to take small things too seriously.
Viewfinder is puzzle game heaven. You’ll never look at a Polaroid the same way again, if you’ve ever looked at a Polaroid at all.
Xenonauts 2 is not a revolutionary release. It’s a conservative modernizing of an old-school tactical predecessor. It sits comfortably in that weird little niche of a sequel to a love letter of a ’90s classic. The improved variety and demanding scenarios may not push the envelope much further than where it was in 2014, but it was already in a great spot to begin with.
In the end, I loved the idea of Oxenfree 2 more than the game itself. It’s a game that has the right pieces, but falls short of putting them together in a way that lives up to the innovative, classic experience of the original game. A more compelling story is frustratingly hidden within the game’s branching narrative system, and it’s a shame that some people will miss it.
Only the first volume of the game has been released on Steam so far, so the mystery is still unsolved. Yet it’s already skyrocketed to the top of my personal list of favorite games of the year due to the depth of its characters and the twisty, sometimes even supernatural, turns of its murder mystery.
I’m thrilled that the remaster has given Ghost Trick a new lease on life. But Sissel spends the whole game making sure that nothing falls through the cracks — and that just doesn’t square with his game’s now lonely survival.
At its core, Fight Forever is a love letter to the golden generation of pro wrestling video games. It is not perfect, and on the content side, it’s slightly dated — but most of my complaints wash away every time I pick up the controller and start a new match. The nostalgia and finesse of those old glory years emanates from so many angles that it’s hard to nitpick the places that fall short. AEW: Fight Forever is at once a faithful homage, and a promising signifier of the future.
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.
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.
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.
Final Fantasy 16 is incredible when it doesn’t try to say anything meaningful
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.
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.
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.
Street Fighter 6 is the ultimate fighting game toolbox
More busywork doesn’t lessen the series-signature lootfest appeal
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.
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.
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.
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.