As a reviewer, I tend to pick out games that I want to review based on one of three criteria. The first are games where either I had been following early development or just saw the trailer and thought that the game looked like a lot of fun. The second are games that are somehow
If you’ve been reading my reviews for the past several years, you have probably been able to figure out certain things about me, and one of those things is that I am still pining for a sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics. The two that we technically got were both worse in terms of writing, mechanics,
Not for the first time, I find myself taking on the full version of a title that I have already previewed. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition already let me dip a toe into what the game had to offer, and I rather liked what it had on display. So I immediately
So there’s an interesting thing that happens for me a lot as a game reviewer: I am handed a game that I do not personally like very much while I also recognize that it’s not doing anything wrong. A recurring theme in several of my reviews is that you have to evaluate games based on
I found myself with a fair number of feelings when it came to Hammerwatch II. None of them were perhaps the ones the developers wanted, but as I’ve said many times, what is far more important than what I think about a game personally is what the game is trying to be. And in no
Match-3 puzzle-based RPGs have been popular ever since Puzzle Quest arrived back in 2007. It seems like a pretty natural formula to fall back on, only slightly impacted by the fact that as a rule, most of them have kind of been absolutely terrible. While the basics of the puzzle gameplay are solid (we have,
It can sometimes be really difficult to tell if a given “maker” game is going to be really fun or really middling, and part of the problem is just that these games are not… well… games. That might sound incredibly mean, but it’s not actually meant as any sort of denigration; it’s just the reality
I am a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the Star Wars franchise, but not in the way that a lot of people are. There’s a certain curmudgeonly streak of people that have existed more or less since 1983 with a very specific idea in their minds about what the films, books, games,
Every so often, my love of games trying new spins on the metroidvania formula leads me to misread a game. When I watched the first trailers for Trinity Fusion, I was expecting something in that vein. This was perhaps not entirely inaccurate, but it was mostly inaccurate. Sure, there are definitely aspects of the game
So here’s a statement that might surprise people who read this because it’s kind of considered verboten among anyone who plays a lot of video games: I actually really like mobile games. No, really. Don’t get me wrong; a lot of mobile games are shallow, lightweight experiences that barely qualify as games and I would
It feels like we really have already passed the point wherein we should be getting dozens of deeply felt YouTube videos about what makes a good roguelite game, or else we already have been getting them and I just happen to have somehow missed them over the past several years. The thought was on my
Can you believe that I’ve actually never played Slay the Spire? I feel like I should have by this point, but I also feel like I have a general idea of the shape of it just by playing so many games that are derived from its basic formula. There’s a certain type of game, and
After I was most of the way through 9 Years of Shadows, I asked our review editor if I was allowed to simply post an image to review the game. He was… not enthusiastic about that being the entire review, so I will instead write a full review. But I will include the image itself
One of the things that’s kind of amazing about reviewing games is the fact that you see things you otherwise probably would never have caught. Souls of Chronos is just such a game. It’s a little indie game from Shanghai-based FUTU Studio, published by Astrolabe Games, and the odds are pretty good that it wouldn’t
The interesting thing about the retro FPS revival that’s been happening over the past few years is that in many ways, it has already reached a point wherein you need to have a really strong hook to justify your place in the field. At first, it was just enough to offer a throwback from regenerating
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read more than a few of my reviews to know that I like games in the general metroidvania sub-category. That having been said, they are also still a genre I tend to be critical of; just like any other sort of game, it’s possible to
Let me start with an anecdote: Kandria, on both its official website and right as the first thing on its Steam page, proudly boasts that the game has zero ability gating and you can go anywhere you want right from the start of the game. The same blurb expresses glee that finally, you will be
I’d really like to be able to say that when we got the full review build for this particular title, my experience of playing through the demo for Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider had already slipped through my memory and faded into half-remembered ephemera. Because that’s exactly what this game feels like it’s emulating right down to
I forget exactly when it was I stumbled across Tower Hunter: Erza’s Trial on Steam long ago, but it was at least at a point when the odds of getting new metroidvania titles seemed… not great. So it was a while ago, and it definitely predates my working here. The game launched into early access,
If you’ve caught the subtle mentions of it many times over the course of the years I’ve been reviewing here, you probably have a vague sense that I actually really like turn-based strategy games. Heck, I like strategy games in general, hence why I keep trying to play RTS games despite being demonstrably bad at
