Elise Avery
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The EscapistLatest Reviews
The game’s art is stylish and coherent, and the music, animation, and effects all support this. There’s plenty to do in Thirsty Suitors, as you can skate as different characters, including a cat and dog, and you can also unlock songs and outfits for Jala. The game took me 9 and a half hours, and I did barely any of the skating challenges, but completed all the side quests and cooking recipes I could find.
Sadly, I experienced quite a few softlock bugs during combat, meaning I lost progress several times. The only holographic spirit I ever found was lost due to a softlock. That said, I don’t have a tonne of criticisms of the game. I wish there was more to the romances, but that’s just because I like the characters and want more.
Aliens: Dark Descent gives off a bad first impression, but I came away from the game impressed by the quality of its gameplay and the great graphics and voice acting. If you like the sound of an XCOM-esque real-time tactics game in the Aliens universe, you should give this a try.
If you’ve enjoyed other cinematic puzzle platformers, you’ll probably like this one, but there isn’t anything particularly new to recommend it other than its beautiful visuals. If you haven’t liked other games in this subgenre, this won’t change your mind.
Despite all the things I don’t like about it, Darkest Dungeon II isn’t a terrible roguelike. It’s just fairly middle of the road, with plenty of replay value, but gameplay that fails to distinguish itself from the crowd or live up to its predecessor. If you like your roguelikes hard, you might enjoy this one, but it wasn’t to my taste at all.
Despite the frustration of the level system, and the repetitiveness of some of the side content, I had a good time with the combat and flying at the heart of Everspace 2. This feels like a return to an older style of game, and I’d recommend it if you like spaceship games.
Batora is admirable for its blend of button-mashing combat and a story with moral choices that takes itself seriously. But with the story as bad as it is, I can only recommend the game if you’re really into top-down action games and are willing to look past the story’s flaws and engage with it for what it is — an 8-hour Saturday morning cartoon in video game form.
As far as minor quibbles go, there’s a 20-plus turn limit for every map, which is an absurdly long amount of turns, but I can imagine it annoying some players. I wish the class diversity in the early game were better. Optional battles could do with more variety, and the game doesn’t currently support PlayStation controllers natively. A few maps are weirdly harsh, and you’d be unlikely to play them without losing soldiers the first time on permadeath mode.
The moments when the story takes an unexpected turn or the gameplay allows you to influence the story are engaging, and they show the promise of the game’s fusion of card tricks and intrigue. But those moments were too few and far between to keep me excited. In short sessions, the game is an enjoyable enough mix of memory and execution. But Card Shark’s repetitious nature and floundering momentum keep it from reaching its full potential.
If you want a deep, ever-expanding game where you’ll have endless fun, this game might disappoint you with its tightly contained ambitions. However, if you like the sound of a relaxing tile placement game with a simple set of mechanics you can enjoy every so often, Dorfromantik won’t disappoint.