Kyle Hilliard
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Writing For
GameSpot
Game InformerLatest Reviews
The original Silent Hill 2 released in 2001, which was an impressive time for the medium. The year was not without other forward-thinking games tackling complicated emotional subjects (Metal Gear Solid 2 and Ico, for example), but James Sunderland’s journey into the titular town continues to stand out as arguably the most progressive both at the time and shockingly still today. Revisiting what many consider to be a masterpiece on the nature of grief, trauma, guilt, and other topics not typi...
For the first time since The Legend of Zelda’s inception in 1986, the series’ namesake is finally the playable protagonist. Echoes of Wisdom is not a spin-off or a non-canon entry in the ongoing legend but rather a proper Zelda game filled with dungeons and puzzles. Getting to explore a version of Hyrule as Zelda is overdue, and efforts have been made to make sure it retains the feeling of a Zelda game, while undeniably trying something new. Echoes lacks the scale and grandeur of previous...
The Arkham series has earned the prestige of being a fantastic and consistent video game franchise without any licensed game asterisks. Nearly all the Arkham games are great in different ways and perhaps the most surprising compliment to pay Arkham Shadow is that it stands up in that lineage, despite being made by a different developer for a difficult platform. I’ve missed the Arkham games and was overjoyed to discover that developer Camouflaj figured out how to successfully translate Arkha...
Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG) have committed to a breakneck pace for its Like a Dragon series since it finally began to find its global audience and the results have been consistently impressive. Upon reveal, it seemed Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii might be a smaller sidequest taking place alongside the primary franchise. That is generally true (don’t expect any gigantic character or story revelations), but protagonist Goro Majima’s adventure is deeper and denser than I ex...
Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii is one of the best 2D platformers of the past 20 years. It’s a hyperbolic statement I would typically avoid in a review, but revisiting the game on Switch and years of reflection have given me the confidence to commit. The Switch transition does have some downsides making it a somewhat underwhelming port of a fantastic game, but it doesn’t change the fact that Returns is a classic and I am glad I no longer have to break out a Wii Remote and Nunchuck...
Digging into the memory banks of my game-playing career, I don’t know that I have ever felt so directly called out by a video game. I am not a successful fighter like protagonist Alta, nor do I have her personally destructive focus on success at all costs. But I know exactly how she feels, both as a generally anxious person who doesn’t truly know how to relax and as a gamer who doesn’t like cozy games who suddenly found themselves inside one. Wanderstop has technical shortcomings that s...
Three Hopes features the often repetitive combat style developer Omega Force is renowned for, but enough dedicated Fire Emblem mechanics exist to make it feel like something more than a simple spin-off.