
Silent Hill 2 is a welcome modernisation of a survival horror masterpiece. It smoothly polishes down the rough edges of the original game’s combat while taking a piece of heavy grit sandpaper to scuff up every rust and mold-covered surface of its nightmarish environments, successfully making them appear far more abrasive and menacing to explore. Previously primitive boss battles have been transformed into substantially more intense encounters, and its intimidating audio design kept me acutely aware that every fog-cloaked street I walked down could quickly hurry me towards my own dead end. It does feel a little padded out in parts, and I do wish that Bloober Team had streamlined some of its more convoluted puzzle sections to prevent the story’s momentum from sagging on occasion. Still, intermittent pacing problems aside, Silent Hill 2 is a great way to visit – or revisit – one of the most dread-inducing destinations in the history of survival horror.
While Ara: History Untold is a visually captivating historical 4X with an interesting underlying economy, it gets bogged down well before the midway point, mainly because it doesn’t provide enough tools and UI support to manage all of the things it expects you to manage. Your choice of leader, religion, and government almost always simply add uninteresting passive modifiers, which means most playthroughs will feel roughly the same other than the layout of the map itself. I had a pretty decent time with my march through the ages, especially in the first of its three acts. But it did require me to eventually give up on trying to play optimally, passing turns without doing anything until I emerged victorious. A lot of these systems are exciting and clever in their design – they're just not that enjoyable to interact with past a certain point.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a fun action game with a solid concept and a stellar paranormal investigation system. Its story about struggling to let go of loved ones in death is worth hearing, even when its pacing occasionally gets sluggish and indulgent. The combat system also tries some interesting new things that largely work out, only dragged down by poor enemy variety and wonky controls. Still, swapping between the corporeal and ghostly planes instantaneously is every bit as cool when solving mysteries as it is during fights, and the writing and characters help carry Banishers across its rougher patches. That made saying goodbye to them fittingly difficult, decaying flesh and all.
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is a powerful visual novel that mixes a world-bending story with deeply personal stakes. Helpful quality-of-life features like the ability to go back and re-read earlier messages are also as approachable as they are omnipresent. It takes a while to get going, though it also makes familiarizing yourself with its somewhat dense lore easy thanks to a built-in codex that explains most of the in-world jargon required to understand what’s going on. But hidden between Reverie’s magic and metaphors is a story firmly rooted in the power of community, reflecting the resilience of the human spirit itself.
When you get into the guts of it, WRC Generations is by no means a drastic shake-up on its quality predecessors, even if there have been some small but welcome improvements to the career mode and customisation tools that have spiked my enthusiasm. It does, however, deserve credit for both the very respectable range of relevant rally cars it features, as well as its absolute mountain of rally locations. With almost every country to host the WRC over the last decade represented, WRC Generations may be KT Racing’s last WRC game, but there’s nothing least about it. The kitchen sink philosophy has resulted in a fantastic and uncommonly generous package for gravel groupies, asphalt addicts, and mud-slinging maniacs alike.
Madden fans will tell you that it hasn’t been a great decade for EA’s football sim. Like the NFL itself, the profits have continued to grow, but the product has suffered. Madden NFL 23, though, provides a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel with a handful of smart enhancements to animations, AI, and passing mechanics that make subtle but meaningful improvements to the moment-to-moment football on the field. To be clear, Madden still has a long way to go to catch up with other sports sims, the majority of which are more refined, less buggy, and have a clearer identity. After playing Madden NFL 23, though, I finally have a little optimism that it’s on the right path — maybe not an emphatic “Boom!”, but clear forward progress for a series that so desperately needs it.
Inventing a new sport is no easy task, but Rollerdrome finds consistently clever ways to marry extreme skating with explosive gunplay. The story can be ignored in favor of raw action if you want, but it’s intriguing enough that I was excited to find so much hidden underneath this beautiful surface when I went looking. Either way, developer Roll7 has found an inventive mishmash of genres that work so well together I can’t stop replaying levels to better my scores. Its rollerskating and third-person shooting may sound odd together, but just like its stellar soundtrack, Rollerdrome finds harmony in marrying the two to create something that truly shreds.
Disciples: Liberation struggles against itself. It contains a rich world and high-stakes story that are coupled with fun and varied tactical combat, but this RPG feels destined for cult status, especially among those who didn't know they wanted this particular blend of genres. Despite its epic length, it’s a game that feels like the start of something bigger, and I had enough fun that I'd at least try a sequel. Disciples: Liberation has a lot of interesting ideas going on that could be refined into something great – if its rampant bugs can be smoothed out and its extraneous systems balanced.
Grounded is a zany, challenging, and memorable adventure that benefits from Obsidian’s instantly recognizable style, humor, and RPG bonafides, making it one of the best survival games in years. There aren’t many games that I’ve been anxious to dive back into after playing for over 100 hours, but Grounded still has me daydreaming about my next tiny expedition. Even the obnoxiously small inventory space, occasional lost treasures, and continued wonkiness and stability issues haven’t come close to throwing a wet blanket over an otherwise fantastic experience. It’s a testament then to how incredibly strong every other part of Grounded is that these issues did very little to cramp my style or my immense enjoyment.
It’s dangerous to go alone into Sword Art Online: Lost Song. The single-player campaign is paper thin, combat and enemies are repetitive, and the fan service kept to a minimum. On the other hand, adding other players to the mix lets you find the fun in its smooth controls, coordinating attacks against hordes of enemies, and tough competitive duels.
Sid Meier’s Starships’ battles held my attention for a handful of games, after which point the tactical AI’s behavior became exploitable and the strategic layer became too muddled and unpredictable. So I say so long to Starships after a brief time, but I’ll always remember its neato torpedoes.
Warframe tips the scales too far in one direction. The core gameplay, including the variety of suits and weapons, is terrific, and it’s reason enough to play this sci-fi shooter. But the boring story, too-similar missions, and aggressive payment model hold it back from what it could be. Still, if you plan to pick it up, it’s worth dropping $60 and pretend there’s nothing else to it.
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