GamesHub's Reviews
Mineko’s Night Market is a carefully considered, cosy life sim, with an intriguing, low-stakes narrative and plenty of familiar activities to keep you busy. It might not sound groundbreaking on paper, but it delivers on everything it promises, offering a felicitous, feline-filled escape from your troubles.
While it leans heavily on spy genre tropes, and appears to be determined to separate itself from the wilder, futuristic ideas of its base game counterpart by focussing on more familiar, socially relevant political themes, Phantom Liberty is a compelling, cinematic story that expands the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Mortal Kombat 1 has proven itself to be continually compelling throughout its early access and launch period, a remarkably refined and confident instalment of a series that had already secured its identity long ago. The story campaign is an entertaining rollercoaster ride, its foundational fighting mechanics remain strong, and the game’s focus on wide-ranging approachability in service of broadening the fighting game community must be applauded.
In a time when absolutely massive blockbuster RPGs are sucking up all the oxygen in the room, Wandering Sword stands out as an amazing independent RPG that crushes every goal it sets out to achieve. Small issues aside, its easy to become besotted with its all-encompassing world; a huge recurring cast of fantastic characters blossom amongst a beautifully woven tale of loss, growth, strength, history and consequence. Wrap that up in moreish combat and wonderfully interlocking RPG systems, and it feels like a modern classic.
Lies of P is a sublime Souls-like experience that has studied every lesson taught by the genre, and then iterated on them all. It’s an earnest, existential, but optimistic take on an old classic fairy tale, in a nightmarish world that’s a dream to play in.
Gunbrella is an adventure with a real sense of vigour. Its narrative remains gripping, even in its weaker beats, and paints an evocative picture of a dark world that isn’t so different from our own.
While the whole affair is over in a blink, the moreish adventure of this DLC, the first part of a larger story titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, pushes you along with confidence. Short, sharp, and energetic, this is a DLC chapter with high stakes, and equally high reward.
It's the static and mechanical elements of Starfield that shine the brightest – the art, the environments, the combat systems. They make up the strong foundations of a playset with a very intriguing scenario. But you need to mentally meet Starfield partway to complete its vision of a vast, living universe. You need to stretch out the expanse and envision the journey. You need to look past the menus and form the fantasy. You need to help breathe life into its paper dolls. You need to add your own dash of wonder, and imagine your own unknowns. Truly, Starfield is a role-playing game, through and through.
Armored Core 6 is an unsympathetic and cold-blooded game. It's a cup of bitter, black coffee – and thankfully, that suits my palate perfectly. It's full of moments that make you feel very powerful – in both effortless and hard-fought ways – and moments that make you very, very small. In the face of it all, you're pushed to overcome the impossible. And you'll come out on the other end wearing an exhausted, wry smile.
What you want out of a blockbuster is a chance to go with the flow, let yourself get pushed to the edge of your seat for a few hours, and walk out with your blood pressure up a notch and a smile on your face. Immortals of Aveum does all that very well.
It’s pure magic to bring up a quest line or character, and realise that you, and you alone, have stumbled onto their path by chance. It’s magic to realise just how far the game’s plot can stretch, and how it can account for even the smallest choices made along your path. In the same way Dungeons & Dragons allows you to live out a self-guided fantasy, Larian Studios has managed to capture and bottle a slice of that magic, in rare video game form.
Stray Gods might not have told me how to get over a quarter-life crisis – unless I can turn into a God sometime soon – but it was an enchanting, emotionally affecting journey nonetheless.
Surfing through the beautiful world of Atlas Fallen is nice, but unsatisfying combat struggles to keep you invested.
Venba’s portrayal of the complex diasporic family dynamic is spot-on. It’s a perfect portrait of the challenges and wistfulness that come with trying to live a life while being torn between two completely different cultures.
Disney Illusion Island makes a huge impression in its runtime, with any concerns about challenge or repetition largely overshadowed by an incredible art style that brings the adventure to life in eye-popping fashion.
With recent packs like Growing Together feeling genuinely essential to gameplay, and titles like Cottage Living already making up much of the ground that Horse Ranch covers, it doesn’t feel like an expansion pack that’s particularly necessary. The features it adds are mostly solid, and there’s plenty of mileage in adding a horse to your Sims family – but it’s fair to say its lack of meaningful innovation leaves it feeling like a second thought.
Pikmin 4 exhibits the most demanding and multifaceted use of the series mechanics yet, with several situations and game modes that push your ability to strategically think and plan ahead under pressure. Pikmin 4 deftly accomplishes several things: staying true to the challenge and identity of the Pikmin series while expanding its ideas, making its concepts and obstacles more approachable, and simply being a beautiful and charming realisation of the Pikmin world.
Viewfinder is a short and sharp exploration of a strong concept that builds an unimposing space to play with those ideas, and fosters a mild, continual hum of gratification as you go on that journey. A pleasant exercise in gently massaging your brain synapses, it’s like a brisk refreshment that leaves you feeling slightly more satisfied when you’re done.
There’s a kind of scrappy, desperate feeling to a firefight in Jagged Alliance 3. Hits to the arms reduce accuracy, and damage to the legs impedes movement. Cover can be destroyed. Losing line-of-sight allows your merc to re-enter Sneak Mode and return to surprise the enemy. Saving a couple of AP to drop into a prone position at the end of a turn can be the difference between seeing the next turn or bleeding out. Yet, despite all this tactical granularity, the successful play is often a matter of running around the cover the enemy is hiding behind and shooting them in the back. Assuming you don’t miss, of course.
C-Smash VRS deserves to sit with pride among the essential VR titles. Especially if you have room to move.