Leo Faierman
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Screen RantLatest Reviews
Absolum
An explosive tutorial introduces you to dark elf Galandra and her companion Karl, a stout warrior with a blunderbuss. Hounded by attackers, they arrive at Uchawi’s Hearth, a sanctuary in the land of Talamh home to the Root Sisters, a kind of protectorate witch coven hunted by the Sun King...
Dying Light: The Beast
The game map is divided into four general areas: an industrial zone, a quaint village, a national park, and Old Town. The latter is probably the most familiar and fun, a city reminiscent of its namesake in Warsaw, and leaving it leads to less interesting and often cumbersome traversal. There’s...
In my estimation, Shape of Dreams responds to virtually every checkbox wishlist for the contemporary roguelite fan. The intricate spell and upgrade system is deep, easy to understand, and consistent, feeding into every run’s arc of difficulty, never feeling unfair or overtuned. The sound design and special effects are outlandish...
Sadly, those retreads often mean more combat. It’s exciting at first, this scrabbly Soulslike stamina-baiting movement against eerie phantasmal hollow-face demons, wielding a Ki-Pulse-like rally mechanic straight out of Nioh that precludes the need for healing items once you get the timing right. Weapons are strictly melee-only, a collection of...
Mafia: The Old Country
That first glimpse of the Sicilian countryside in Hangar 13’s Mafia: The Old Country is a gobsmacking moment, with those distant mountain ranges and crumbling ruins framing the pastoral splendor of busy vineyards and dirt roads. It’s a land populated and maintained by ruthless dons and humble peasants alike, supporting...
Anybody who cut their teeth on the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy should feel those reflexes return after a few hours with Ragebound. Nuanced aspects of those NES games reveal themselves, like memorizing the precise distance of your sword slash or enemy knockback, especially those designed to casually nudge Kenji into...
Hell Clock
Hell Clock’s isometric view might make it appear like a twin-stick roguelite, but the game is all crunchy numbers under the hood. You start off with ten available skills, which can be configured into any of up to five active slots. Mixing these abilities soon reveals synergies, along with accumulated...
The game is primarily split between bouts of combat, demon maintenance, and exploring each cloistered region for NPC chatter and the occasional bonus quest, or “case.” Those scare quotes are intentional, since the bulk of RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army’s side quests are one-off blips which barely...
In key ways, Monster Train 2 is indistinguishable from the original, but it brings more content to tangle with, giving this no-less-than-essential sequel a victory lap quality. But who can complain? The first Monster Train game launched in 2020, and it gave Slay the Spire some worthy competition. Developer Shiny...
The Horror at Highrook
Eldritch horrors surround Highrook Manor, but they're child’s play for the four plucky investigators at your beck and call. Nullpointer’s sophomore release, The Horror at Highrook, is a new abstract RPG adventure centered on cards and a ticking timer, elevated by a finely woven horror yarn. Published by Outersloth (of...
Could this surprise spinoff of a long-running beat ‘em up MMO be one of the best non-FromSoftware Souls-likes ever made? I certainly think so. Developed by Neople and published by Nexon, The First Berserker: Khazan is the year's best surprise thus far, a deliciously challenging dark fantasy action-adventure stacked with...
There are optional objectives dotting the map as per usual, with the upgrade/knowledge system carefully tempered to decelerate main quest progress and force grinding for XP. The open-concept quest menu is confusing, and some forgettable activities round out the game’s more uninspired elements, but the overall attention and focus feel...
