Sean Migalla
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Although I was initially intrigued, I found my eyes glazing over whenever a new dialogue scene started up. Often, I find myself rushing through combat to get to dialogue scenes in better story-rich games, especially ones that allow me to participate in the conversation. Here, I found myself speed reading to get back to the action. This is partially because I felt simultaneously overwhelmed and uninterested in lore dumps about the Arq Grid, and partially because it didn't feel like my dialogue choices had any major impact on the course of the game.
Dune: Awakening was dealt a difficult hand when it came to adapting Dune's combat for a video game. Shields in Dune prevent most projectiles from penetrating them, forcing people to resort to fighting with melee weapons like swords. However, sticking to this faithfully could have proven difficult for balancing encounters. It's much more difficult to face multiple opponents wielding melee weapons than it is to shoot your way through a dungeon. Funcom, therefore, made the right call to limit the number of enemies with shields, and also allow some gun damage to get through them.
It's hard to find any real complaints about DOOM: The Dark Ages. I'm eagerly awaiting the planned Campaign DLC, and in the meantime, will likely continue to search each level for secrets and try out each difficulty. The highest difficulty is a lot of fun for more experienced players, though you may want to get the hang of DOOM: The Dark Ages' new mechanics first. If I were forced to be nitpicky, I'd say that I didn't feel too invested in the game's story, but every cutscene is skippable so that it won't ruin your experience.
The number of modes is something to celebrate, but they aren’t perfect. The role-playing aspects of MyCAREER and MyTEAM still feel somewhat half-baked. This is especially true when playing as a GM, where character dialogue isn’t fully voice-acted. Character models flap their mouths silently at the player in a disconcerting manner as their dialogue appears at the bottom of the screen, then they essentially stand there lifeless after their brief interaction. While there is more effort on display in the storytelling elements of MyCAREER, it still isn’t interesting enough not to just skip through and get back to the court.