James Carr
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Writing For
MonsterVine 
GameSpot 
KeenGamer Latest Reviews
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is a low point for the series, sacrificing the improvements made in Black Ops 6 for a directionless, boring co-op focus. The campaign fails to balance its conflicting tones while sacrificing the kinetic nature and creativity of previous entries. Multiplayer and Zombies both lean far too heavily on nostalgia, while featuring the noisiest UI in recent Call of Duty releases.
Morsels provides a ton of moments of surprise and delight through its chaotic art style and surprisingly weird mini-games, but an uneven difficulty and overly obtuse items leave a bad aftertaste. While the selection of Morsels you can wield contains some incredibly fun options, there are just as many misses, and far fewer than I initially expected.
Ninja Gaiden 4 feels plucked out of time in the best way possible. An action game in the same vein as the first three entries in the series, Ninja Gaiden 4 smartly makes the fast-paced combat the star of the show. Linear levels drive home this focus, never asking you to take a break from the action for some unfortunate mini-game or collectible hunting, instead placing you directly on the roller coaster track with no signs of slowing down. Combine that with a simple but well-executed story and...
Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree wears its Hades inspiration on its sleeves, and while the gorgeous art style and colorful cast of characters are quite enjoyable, the rest of the experience is lacking. The combat system is overstuffed with far too many systems and currencies, while the different characters vary widely in their usefulness in combat. The biggest flaw is the two-character system, which actively drags down the experience both in single-player and co-op.
Silent Hill f takes the franchise and its evil fog to 1960s Japan, where Shimizu Hinako is stuck in a small town. While Ebisugaoka isn’t the town of Silent Hill, its thick fog created by a mysterious monster has transformed its inhabitants, forcing Hinako to fight for survival. While Hinako’s story provides plenty of intrigue and horror as the pieces are slowly revealed to you, the combat system feels lackluster.
The most damning critique I can make of Lost Soul Aside is that I couldn’t wait for it to be over. While the combat does occasionally shine, the poorly constructed narrative, terrible cinematography, and levels that drag on for the sake of having a longer game. While the technical performance was better than expected, Lost Soul Aside is still fairly buggy, and a stable frame rate can’t make this an enjoyable experience.
Cronos: The New Dawn is an excellent survival horror game, offering legitimately tough battles, scary monsters, and some intense resource management. Its retro futuristic 1980s Poland setting creates a combination of brutalist architecture and function over fashion tech that creates a unique setting. The narrative mystery delivers on exciting twists and revelations, although the questions I wanted answered by the end were not the questions Cronos: The New Dawn wanted to answer.
Metal Eden feels like a fantastic rollercoaster, only bogged down by the long line. In this case, that long line is an abundance of story cutscenes and dialogue that only ever exceeded in annoying me. But when you do finally get back into action, that fast-paced platforming and shooting shine alongside the best, although having even one additional game mode beyond the campaign could make Metal Eden a must play.
Mafia: The Old Country is by no means bad, but lackluster gameplay and good but not great writing make it unremarkable. The atmospheric early hours and the lovingly detailed Sicilian valley it’s set in make for a world that feels immersive, but the latter half of the narrative can’t help but go through the motions of every trope of the Mafia genre, even when the gameplay offers potential story deviations. Instead, it sticks with the tropes, resulting in a flat ending you’ve been expecti...
FBC: Firebreak is a tedious co-op shooter, lacking in moment-to-moment fun gameplay and rewarding progression. The mission objectives, while unique, are deeply boring to actually engage with, and the shooting itself doesn’t meet the standard set by other games in the genre. The story connections to Control are easter eggs at best, making FBC: Firebreak an experience not worthy of your time.