Thumb Wars's Reviews
Hell is Us hits so many of the milestones the developers clearly wanted to, with ominous, environmental storytelling brilliantly achieved, a dark and brooding story that’ll have you questioning your own humanity, and a supernatural tale that weaves into all of that seamlessly, elevating it further. Issues with optimization aside, you’d be missing out if you don’t give Hell is Us a real chance, and it may just be Nacon’s best offering yet.
During my time with SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance, I found myself enjoying every aspect, from the fast-paced combat to the gripping story and the beautiful locations that I explored. Although the combat was challenging to get to grips with, it felt very rewarding once perfected and even led to many satisfying victories against annoying enemies and challenging bosses.
In my opinion, Fresh Tracks is a unique and fun game full of amazing songs, unique mechanics, and complicated challenges that make it a fun game to play while also providing all kinds of replayability. The characters and world of Fresh Tracks are incredibly detailed, with plenty of unique and colorful scenes that players can easily get lost in if they aren’t too busy trying to survive the constant onslaught of obstacles.
My final thoughts on One Man’s Trash are that it is full of secrets to find that can be fun for those who are looking for a mystery hunt, but in terms of gameplay, it can be very boring and repetitive if played for a long period of time.
The frankly beautiful environment, rags-to-riches/forbidden love story, and memorable characters lift up the game, while the popping-in and optimization, and lack of a true open-world let the finished game down. With a couple of patches, this could end up being elevated to the best of the franchise, but for now, it’s just on the cusp.
Magic Inn is a very vibrant and detailed game that puts emphasis on being able to cook good food and design a lovely inn that customers would want to go to, while also having fun gameplay mechanics that keep the player involved.
For me, Dead Take was a unique and haunting psychological experience that stayed with me for a long time, even after completing it, while also being an enjoyable puzzle-solving escape room-like game filled with mystery and intrigue that had me guessing the entire playthrough. The best part for me was the acting, as each moment felt full of personality and passion for the craft by each actor.
S.P.L.I.T is full of confusing and complicated moments due to some of its gameplay, but these moments feel gratifying once completed. The story, as well, is full of dark twists and turns that nobody could ever see coming, making it a showstopper.
Theres so much I could say about my time with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, but in a time where everyone and their dog is attempting to capitalise on the Soulslike craze, Leenzee have left me feeling like I've encountered and experienced something special with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, and something I can't help but gush about to anyone that'll listen. It's fun, frustrating in the best way, and one of the best Soulslikes for a long while.
For me, Architect Life: A House Design Simulator is a fun and unique title that allowed me to have fun and be creative while doing so, allowing for some interesting and relaxing hours of gameplay.
By the end of my time with it, I found The Drifter to be a fun and haunting experience throughout, as it constantly kept me engaged both regarding the puzzles I had to solve through the game and the story itself being both interesting and gripping, as each new piece of information led me to want to discover more.
Ready or Not has some truly cinematic moments, all with a realistic tone. The firefights feel urgent and truly life-or-death every single time. The variety of situations and levels, alongside the replayability thanks to the freedom of choice, will keep you coming back and trying to do better, for you, your team, and those you save (or don’t).
For me, Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest is a fun and interesting title, as it provided me with plenty of answers to questions I already had while also providing new questions as it took me through detailed and challenging gameplay mechanics.
TRON: Catalyst is a shorter experience from a AA developer well-versed with the TRON IP, and while the world is incredibly well represented, the thin combat system, 2D characters, and paint-by-numbers story won’t light a fire under any fans to get involved.
The entire package of The Alters is incredible from start to finish. Be it the immersive soundtrack that delivers a gut-punch time after time, the incredible blending of new crew members with the philosophical questions posited around the right to create life, and the performances given by Alex Jordan and the smaller roles by the rest of the cast. When I wasn’t playing The Alters, I was thinking about The Alters. The decisions were difficult, and the choices matter. 2025 seems jam-packed with incredible, Game of the Year contenders, and for the last five months, mine was easily Split Fiction. Now, however, there’s only one choice for me. The Alters is Game of the Year.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition does exactly what it means to. It brings the 14-year-old release to the modern audience, further building on the franchise’s popularity. There’s plenty it can do better, sure, but it’s also incredibly good fun in what it does well. From the campaign to the multiplayer, it’s everything we remember, with some new bugs and a new lick of paint.
While I found Atomfall: Wicked Isle to be a step up in terms of difficulty and storytelling from the base game, I did find that the DLC was very short and chaotic.
Hypercharge: Unboxed is especially great fun for those who remember the more classic times of local multiplayer co-op gaming, and also offers an online component to fight the scourge of evil invading. I enjoyed the gameplay loop immensely, from the shooting to the base-building and especially jumping around the levels, and will continue to return to the game continually.
Overall, I found Roadcraft to be a fun experience that was incredibly detailed, allowing for a lot of realism within the vehicles and how they would perform in certain locations, whether that be good or bad.
Overall, I found my experience with The Siege and the Sandfox to be an enjoyable one, with the parkour and stealth being very fun, especially as the game progressed. Unfortunately, there were a few glitches that will hopefully be fixed in the future.