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Hyper Light Breaker is ambitious. It’s the first time Heart Machine is creating a multiplayer game and their unique approach to the rogue-lite genre is worth tracking. However, if they waited a little longer, and added more content, this early access launch would not have been so rough.
Ultimately, we can talk about a flop. I'm playing an underdeveloped and thoughtless game, requiring boring, time-consuming tasks. Messy, both in terms of the script and gameplay, which multiplies problems.
Right now, Civilization 7 is an incomplete and reduced version of the game, which is plagued by many issues. However, you can feel that under all this mess, a good game might be hiding.
While its first few hours show real promise, The Precinct quickly bogs down in repetition, lackluster storytelling, and frustrating design choices that make law enforcement feel more like a chore than a calling.
I had quite high expectations for Commandos: Origins. I wasn't disappointed in the most important aspect - it's a good stealth game, in which quietly eliminating enemies is rewarded and even desired. However, I cannot turn a blind eye to its archaisms and poor technical aspects.
This isn’t the end of Dragon Age that I was expecting - in this respect, the game must be rated low. However, as an action RPG with flair and a beautiful fairy-tale world, it turns out to be decent, and sometimes even more than that.
Blades of Fire is a pretty decent, average game. It looks good graphically and works just as well. Unfortunately, it can be irritating and even boring at times.
The story and character models are something I can live with. Unless someone is a purist, then the game will certainly make them lose interest very quickly. In my opinion, however, the biggest sins of Silent Hill 2 are the extensive exploration, which eventually becomes tiresome, and the untapped potential of combat.
While there are things that work in its favor, Outcast: A New Beginning ultimately feels like any other open-world game you could play this year or have played years ago. It retains the charm of the original and further explores the world of the Talan in unique and odd ways, but how you go about doing that doesn’t feel as revolutionary as it did back in 1999.
Indeed, in my humble opinion, AC Mirage is a good candidate for one of the worst installments of Ubisoft's Assassin's series. The whole thing is rather embarrassing, disappointing, and synthetic in a bad way; forced. However, I must praise the creators for a quite successful combination of old and new gameplay formulas.
As someone who is not entrenched in one of the many live-service shooter games on the market right now, FBC: Firebreak felt like the multiplayer experience built for me. It has all the weird quirkiness that Remedy has been known for, with clever character classes that synergize well and the kinds of missions you would never see anywhere else. But somehow, when I jump into the game, it doesn’t feel right. The Oldest House is swarming with enemies, but somehow still feels somewhat empty. The missions feel repetitive and even tedious at times. Hopefully, Remedy can learn from this and turn this game into something great, or use the feedback for the next attempt at multiplayer.
While Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree reads well on paper and boasts an intriguing premise, it stumbles in execution, delivering a game that needs more polish to truly shine as the next great Soulslike Metroidvania.
The Lunar: Remastered Collection is a victim of its own faithfulness. While its upgraded visuals—the retro pixel art character sprites and environments and the hand-drawn cutscenes—are stunning, they only barely distract from an otherwise outdated RPG experience. Lunar’s stories and character might have felt fresh and original in the 1990s, but today, they come across as cliché and uninspired. There is fun to be had here, but there are plenty of other great modern RPGs, too. I have a hard time imagining anyone choosing to jump into the world of Lunar today if they don’t have pre-existing nostalgia for the series.
Assassin's Creed: Shadows is a game full of contrasts. On one hand, it offers solid stealth mechanics and a great combat system, but on the other, it features a lackluster storyline and generic exploration. If you're a fan of the series, you'll likely find something to enjoy here, but if you weren't convinced from the start, the combat and stealth may not be enough to win you over.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from MachineGames studio is a true love letter to fans of the original film trilogy. (But it's not without flaws).
Life is Strange: Double Exposure has some strong points and features thought-provoking storytelling the series is known for, but it ultimately feels like a roll of film needing some development.
Star Wars Outlaws is a smuggler with flaws that are easy to turn a blind eye to and be charmed by despite them. The cinematic story told keeps you intrigued until the end, the worlds are pleasing to the eye, and the gameplay offers a variety of attractions. Yes, there are problems, but they are not very painful, you can get used to them, sometimes you just need to grit your teeth and curse at the screen. The Force in this game turned out to be stronger than I assumed.
Playing Visions of Mana almost feels like playing an old JRPG. Its setting was inspired by the Super Nintendo’s Secret of Mana, after all, and you can really feel it when making your way through its wondrous world. However, too much reliance on classic elements also means that the game’s story feels a little too straightforward and as if it, too, is being sacrificed for the sake of reviving the series.
Detective Pikachu Returns is a fun albeit flawed game designed for children to enjoy with a family member next to them. Its core gameplay does get repetitive the more you play it, but what brings it all together and keeps you engaged is its story and themes that give it depth despite taking place in a game that looks too simple to even make an impact.
As it is, Immortals of Aveum is fun but short-lived and doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done before. It’s not perfect nor is it bad, but like its protagonist, the game is more of a jack of all trades than a master of one.