Alex Fuller's Reviews
CD Projekt RED has admirably stuck with the game past its launch troubles, offering patches and upgrades in the two years following as it looks to finally near towards its full potential. That work has reached full fruition through the arrival of both its vaunted Update 2.0 patch and full story expansion Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, which combine to give the game an excellent new lease on life.
Anonymous;Code may not quite reach the same heights of Steins;Gate, but its exciting pacing and more intuitive path towards its ending makes for a highly engaging story. Despite some preposterousness, it readily captures players’ attention with its take on the near future, successfully blending wider ideas about the nature of the world and science with some traditional and modern conspiracy theories.
Unfortunately, while it brings some neat ideas to the ring, the execution places far too many roadblocks in the way. Repetitive combat, slow exploration and progress, and a pretty one-note cast fails to inspire the sort of hype that the game hoped to provide.
While its cases might not quite have the same level of twists and zaniness as its obvious inspiration, Tyrion Cuthbert still offers an enjoyable romp through its five cases across a little over a dozen hours.
While some of the deeper world-building feels increasingly convoluted, and it's time for the series to move on to new pastures, it is great to have one final episode of glory with most of the cast as the game celebrates the series's combat evolution and at least partially ties up some of its numerous unresolved plot points.
Creating something with a greater draw than the Breath of the Wild was always going to be a challenge, but Nintendo has taken lessons learned from and systems established in it to create a glorious follow-up that fully deserves the plaudits that have already come its way.
Boasting an emotional tale with an intriguing take on player choices, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie makes for a highly thoughtful experience worth its time.
Ash of Gods: The Way is a solid strategic deckbuilder; its strength very much lies in its ability to generate a puzzle-solving feel through a straightforward base ruleset and a wide variety of combat scenarios and conditions.
Monolith Soft has executed it superbly, providing an emotional treat that acts as a highly satisfying coda to everything that has come before.
The Outer Worlds sets a solid, if unspectacular, base that has plenty of room to improve.
As a love letter to the series’ soundtracks it heartily succeeds, and every play session is bound to come away with players fondly humming at least one of the tracks they’ve played through for hours ahead.
The way the mysteries work with each other, the cast, and the atmospheric direction and presentation creates an enthralling tale that keeps players ready to unravel the next twist.
Fire Emblem Engage emerges as a decent but ultimately fairly forgettable entry in the series. It seems like a game undecided whether it wants to spend its time celebrating the past or leaving its own mark on the series, and doesn’t really do either.
Neither gameplay style is likely to wow anyone on its own merits, but they are used in good balance to make for an engaging 25-hour experience.
It was always going to be tough to follow-up Golf Story in an interesting manner, and one certainly can’t say there was a lack of ambition in what Sidebar Games was trying to achieve in Sports Story. However, fulfilling that ambition is another matter entirely, and ultimately the game leaves a sense of what could have been.
Harvestella somehow manages to pull off some highly ambitious storytelling, accompanying with it a highly satisfying gameplay loop that is hard to put down. The game has a much stronger and widespread appeal than many may have been lead to believe heading into its release, and is an easy recommendation.
Some of the puzzles and challenges are good fun and satisfying to complete, but there are also many that are made more frustrating than they need to be. With a flawed match system that becomes trivial once its workings have been figured out and technical issues that stack up as the game progresses, it’s incredibly tough to recommend.
Exploring Ocean City offers plenty of rewards for players, be it satisfaction from solving a tough puzzle or challenge, or simply a good chuckle at the strange goings on.
Although its story and presentation elements wear a little thin after a promising start, there is nonetheless plenty to enjoy thanks to a decently deep battle system that offers plenty of challenge for those who want it. It’s a strong debut that offers plenty of optimism for the developer’s future projects.
Fans of the Adventure Science series will get some enjoyment out of seeing its origins, and the mystery does eventually come together in a satisfying way. However, it’s hard to suggest it as an entry point for new potential fans when there are much better options available.