Qualbert.com's Reviews
Nomada Studios follow up title has gone above and beyond it’s predecessor. With deeper gameplay, vibrant colours and a heart wrenching story to boot. Although this 5 hour journey may be shorter than some would like, it doesn’t detract from its fantastic gameplay. Neva is an engaging and emotional experience that is well worth investing your time in, even if it is only for a day or two.
Where the original Monster Train laid a solid foundation for the series, Monster Train 2 expands on the formula in every single way possible. With an absurd amount of content that will likely see your train hurtling through Heaven and Hell for hundreds of hours, it’s no exaggeration to say this might just be one of the most replayable roguelikes ever made. If you’re a sucker for deck-builders that reward repeated playthroughs, you would be foolish not to take a ride on this Monster Train.
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a solid follow-up from Journey to the Savage Planet by taking the strong elements from it and expanding upon to make it bigger and more explorable than before. While going from first to third-person may throw some off but it’s easy to get the hang of it after a while. The planets you visit are varied and fun to travel, great variety of creatures to face and capture, multiple amount of things to collect and upgrade and quests to complete.
There you have it, a gritty, brutal roguelite to add to your ever growing collection. I really enjoyed my time playing Kiborg, no I wasn’t amazing at it but that’s the beauty of the game, it rewards you just enough for progressing. After each death you encounter you think “I got this, one more try”, to the point where that “one more try” becomes 2:30AM on a work night without even realising. It’s fun, addictive and the cybernetics give that extra flair to keep it interesting.
While this game may exude a git gud air from its presentation, don’t be fooled. Shotgun Cop Man isn’t looking for players to break keyboards or smash controllers. It feels like it earnestly wants its players to enjoy a slickly designed power fantasy and have fun. I am delighted to have games that strike the sweet spot of being inventive and rewarding without going into rage-quit territory. It’s a quick, accessible precision/action platformer that I think you should definitely check out.
Sandfall Interactive – take a bow. In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 you have created a masterpiece that will leave a lasting impact. Not just on the gamers who experience it, but on the entire video game industry as a whole. Every single element of this game is amazing. The beautiful visuals. The stunning story. The best videogame soundtrack I have heard in years. What may be the best voice acting we have ever experienced in a game. And of course – the combat. Turn based RPGs are back. And I for one hope they are here to stay.
The Precinct positively nails what it sets out to do: be a competent cop sim with enough of an arcade-y element to satiate the need for speed. If it had more engagement than static .jpgs talking during cutscenes and could fine-tune its AI pathfinding, it’d be my game of the year. As it stands, though, The Precinct is an addictive, immensely-rewarding video game that lived up to its hype.
If you want a poignant tale of a man coming to terms with loss then Tales of Kenzera: Zau is for you. The story is the main focus here and although combat isn’t perfect it still contains more than enough fun and challenge for any player. Unfortunately the side content is severely lacking and most talisman upgrades barely help, however if you don’t want to spend over 20 hours on one game then this is perfect. Some sort of spiritual sequel (no pun intended) with a bigger focus on combat and exploration wouldn’t go astray but the Tale of Zau is just fine just on its own.
It hasn’t even been six months yet and we’ve already seen so many amazing games this year and I think Doom: The Dark Ages stands alongside them easily. The gameplay is extremely fun without being too hectic, with more open areas as Atlan and dragon sections break up the linear gameplay enough to keep it interesting. The visuals are stunning and the soundtrack with the excellent sound design keeps you pumped and wanting more. I can’t say for sure that Doom: The Dark Ages is worthy of 2025’s Game of The Year, but I definitely think it’s in the conversation and it’s a worthy addition to the franchise that pioneered the FPS genre.
Kaamos: Puzzle Roguelike draws upon minimalism as its greatest asset, combining two familiar genres is a dark and depressing package. Through simplistic yet polished gameplay and a bleak, brutalist pixel art-style, Kaamos will have you fail upwards with every run. Learning its gameplay and overcoming its challenging difficulty is immensely satisfying. As a first from Pepperbox Studios, we’re eager to see what this Finnish indie team will be cooking up next.
The characters, gameplay, and farming sim are great fun, this indie sci-fi adventure is 100% worth your time. If you’re familiar with the source material, even more so! Check out the original comic at Soullion’s website.
I’m quite mixed about this game. It has an intriguing set-up that leads you into wild twists and turns that you never see coming, adding with the oddball characters, bizarre dialogue, neat environments and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. But the simple and sometimes restrictive gameplay may not appeal to everyone and the myriad of issues that I’ve had with my time playing tells me that this needed more time to cook up and what we got in the end is an admirable but flawed debut. I do wish them the best of luck on what they’re working on next!
Hands down this is the greatest remaster I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Yes I will firmly admit that nostalgia had a hand in that statement, but to take a 19 year old game and turn it into what we see now is truly amazing. The key thing to take away from this is it’s not a remake, it’s a remaster. The old bones of the original are still there, they’ve just had plenty of milk and are dressed in a nice suit. There’s still pop-in but guards won’t shout at you from a village away for violating the law. There’s been some small frame drops while I’ve been walking in the wild, but I’ve only had 1 crash so far. They’ve kept the heart of the original gameplay but improved some quality of life aspects. Personally I think the game is fantastic and a feat of hard work by the teams at Bethesda and Virtuos. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get into the Dark Brotherhood with a blonde haired Bosmer to help me with that.
An interesting evolution of a comfortable JRPG series, Atelier Yumia is the embodiment of explosive change. Yet despite how much it pushes forward, it still has the heart and soul that the series has nurtured over the years. With excellent writing that is happy to work with tropes the characters and story shine in creative ways. The thematic music and visuals also help make the package feel complete, while new gameplay options let the wider design stand out. A really excellent adventure.
I knew I would enjoy Bokura: Planet as I very much enjoyed Bokura. I only played a little bit of the original, but I found how it did things was incredibly clever and blew my mind at the time. I just had no idea the sequel would get so dark. The first game was no picnic by any means, but I feel like the story and puzzles were both ratcheted up to 11 in Planet. It took me by surprise. My friend was less enthused, but he doesn’t enjoy puzzle games as much as I do. If you like puzzles and dark, mind-bending stories, Bokura: Planet is a short experience that’s destined to linger on your mind long after you’ve finished it.
A very middle-of-the-road game, Steel Seed has some great things going for it, and some real headaches that I wish could be remedied. If it weren’t for the massive difficulty fluctuation and iffy platforming, it could stand with its contemporaries without question. Still, it could be worth a purchase solely for its lofty ambition and immaculate presentation.
Point and click adventure puzzle games are definitely not my usual genre of choice. That being said, sometimes it is good to get outside of your comfort ‘Amerzone’. The quality of the writing and presentation in this remake do more than enough to justify giving Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy a try. Once you start to unravel the mysteries of the white bird egg, you’ll want to see the story through to its conclusion. As a puzzle game it will keep you guessing with novel conundrums and unorthodox solutions. It does have a bit of that Indiana Jones explorer vibe, just without the action and shooting (which some people may actually prefer).
I said it before but I’ll say it again, Rebirth of Souls is a true love letter to the Bleach community. It’s the first console game we’ve gotten in over a decade and you can see the hard work that went into it. Fully voiced and nicely animated, it’s a great way to relive the series that many love. However, it’s not perfect. The game has glitches and is missing key characters. Plus the online mode needs some work if it wants to be a real contender in the competitive fighting space. But it’s on the right track to be one of the best fighting games out there and I look forward to seeing how it improves over time including any additional characters.
Gnomes is a must-play for fans of roguelikes and tower defense games. The more you play, the more you realise that its simple gameplay hides serious depth. Alongside a sleek visual style and a gameplay loop that’ll keep you coming back time and time again, it’s a wonder that a game with this degree of polish was made by only two people. Like a Gnome peeking out from an overgrown garden, this indie gem emerges to put the tower defense genre back on the right path again.
Driven by a passion for creation with music as its heart, Tempopo is unlike any other game you’ve played. Beneath its colourful and childish exterior lies a impressive degree of depth to its gameplay, sleek design, and an absurd attention-to-detail for audio. After the runaway success that was Unpacking, Witch Beam have once again changed directions and prove to be a studio not bound by genres.