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Last reviewed: Mina the Hollower · 7 days ago
Luna Abyss is a AA shooter that holds its own against some of the elite of the genre. Its enticing and ominous sci-fi world is a delight to look at artistically, even if its muddy graphics let it down on closer inspection. Its story is fine, but a slick sense of progression keeps its action and platforming interesting from start to finish.
Planet Zoo is, ironically, a relatively toothless park building game. It doesn't have the delicious chaos of the Jurassic World Evolution games or the thrills of building your own rollercoaster and then hoping it'll stay on the tracks in Planet Coaster. But it's a pleasant and charming game. There's an airy joy in creating a peaceful home for animals to live in, and the earnest conservationist slant of Planet Zoo is hard to fault.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie is the best version of what is generally considered the best Katamari title. That being said, if you own the original and are looking to buy it just for the Royal Reverie content, its extremely short runtime makes it hard to recommend for that alone. However, for anyone who hasn't played this weird and wonderful game (or series) it's a definite recommendation – and a game with an extremely fitting name.
Amnesia: The Bunker sticks a little too close to what Frictional Games has been doing for over a decade now, but with a more free-form approach to gameplay, the team is back on the right track again. Coupled with an excellent setting, Amnesia: The Bunker represents a vast improvement over its predecessor. You'll still encounter the same stumbling blocks of old, but this horror experience comes recommended.
Ultimately, the issues that arise aren’t enough to quash the immense level of fun or the mastery of design on display. Red Matter 2 is a PSVR2 must-play.
Despite our complaints, though, Killer Frequency is lifted by its daft charm. It's an intriguing, unorthodox murder mystery that fans of narrative-driven games will certainly enjoy — it just needed a little bit more tuning.
Five to six hours of playtime will be enough to reach one of the game's three endings, in which time you'll explore a number of eccentric rooms that wonderfully capture the visuals of the PS1 generation. We'd argue some of the environments look slightly better than what Sony's first home system was capable of, but the character models are absolutely bang on. With conversations presented just like Metal Gear Solid, it's a wonderful trip down memory lane.
A good time loop mechanic is supposed to give you enough variety so that repetition doesn't set in. Unfortunately, this is where Loop8 falls flat. You’ll be going over the same conversations and they’re just not interesting enough to make it worthwhile. It also doesn’t help that there’s only a small variety of enemies, and that the underworld is mostly just the town with a different colour palette. It's hard not to get annoyed when you realise that you’re still not strong enough to take out the next boss, and have no choice but to repeat the last few weeks.
Diablo 4 is the true successor to the bad old days of action RPGs and oozes quality in its frenetic combat and deep, engaging character development. It tells a complex, gritty narrative set in the darkly beautiful world of Sanctuary. Even better, it provides a solid foundation for years of Diablo content to come.
Street Fighter 6 is an absolute humdinger of a sequel.
For anyone familiar with the series (and the RTS genre itself), Company of Heroes 3 is a solid but flawed entry. For newcomers, getting to grips with the controls and trudging through the patchy Italian campaign might not be worth the price of enlistment. However, if you do learn its intricacies, you're rewarded with fantastic, intense combat. It's a great effort to translate the RTS to console even with one or two issues.
Other game modes feel slightly less frenetic than the campaign and scenario modes, and are definitely the modes to try if you really want to take your time and not feel rushed. There's definitely a lot of opportunity to play the game exactly how you want to, and find the mode that works for you if you feel the competitive options are a bit too stressful.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a broken mess of a game. There are barely any redeeming qualities to be found amidst what can only be described as a massive missed opportunity. There is some serious potential in a single-player linear Lord of the Rings experience like this, but with outrageously dated level design, clunky controls, a severe lack of polish, muddy and unimpressive graphics, and a dull story, Gollum completely misses the mark. As massive fans of the books, films, and games, it's sad to see that there is nothing precious about this experience.
In Tanta We Trust is a DLC better than the game it's based on, but that's more because it strips the Forspoken experience of its open world busywork than anything else. An expansion that focuses more on combat, the single open area is a condensed version of what the base title offers, turning it into a more tightly packed undertaking that gets you in amongst the action much faster. It's more Forspoken, but a better version of it.
There's a kernel of a fantastic tactical role playing game in Miasma Chronicles, but it lacks polish in a few key areas, and while the lore and the characters are endearing in their own right the overarching fiction that binds it all together disappoints.
If you can overlook the glaring issues Glitch Busters has with its poor presentation and basic AI, then there's fun to be had with friends in the form of some enjoyable boss fights and vehicle-based levels later into the campaign. However, without a buddy by your side, it's not worth trawling through the rest of the game with a bunch of useless peas to get there.
With lofty ambitions and some great elements, After Us lets itself down in as many ways as it triumphs. Gorgeous art direction and an admirable anti-pollution message aren't enough to make up for tedious combat, performance issues, and open-ended level design that plays things a little too loose. If you're itching for an experience like this, there are better options out there, at the very least until After Us' performance issues are addressed. There's the core of an incredible experience here, but it's just not ready yet.