Kevin Tucker
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Game RevolutionLatest Reviews
Risk of Rain 2 review for PS4, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The original Risk of Rain was something of a indie hit, offering simple roguelike gameplay in an atmospheric two-dimensional world. But there was something missing; something holding the game back from being the action-packed experience it was yearning to be. To solve the problem, the team at Hopoo Games took its addictive formula and introduced an entirely new dimension. The result is RISK OF RAIN 2, a now-3D roguelike that offers third-person shooting and melee combat in a package that promises a huge variety of possibilities — and delivers in spades.
Control is an experience not to be missed. Remedy Entertainment has gone above and beyond to realize the game's paranormal-themed world, and the result is something so entrancing and bizarre that there's really little else to compare it to. It's proof positive that the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts, but in drawing on the best that gaming had to offer, several technical issues managed to sneak in from beyond the void. Whether these glitches or bugs seem silly or nefarious will be up to individual players, but even the biggest bouts of slowdown don't take away from the game's stellar action and environments. It's fast-paced, fun, and pretty damn freaky — all the right elements of a perfect sci-fi thriller.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a polished, gigantic, and complex sci-fi strategy game. It has loads of different features, factions, and quests, and there's enough content to keep players active for weeks, months, probably years. But while the possibility of such a deep well may be alluring to 4X fans, it's a bad fit for the rest of us working-class citizens. If you've got time to spare, Planetfall has more than enough intricacy to keep you occupied, but if you're someone without a lot of free time, the game's demanding pace, meandering tasks, and compulsory conflicts will prove to be more frustrating than entertaining.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is pure fun, and I couldn't be more pleased with the experience. Diving back into creator Koji Igarashi's iconic style of gameplay has been deeply nostalgic for me; I even found myself humming old Symphony of the Night tunes after playing the new release for a few hours. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a prime example of how much fun the Metroidvania genre has to offer, and will undoubtedly serve as a point of comparison for all retro-inspired platformers that follow it.
Tropico 6 is the best game I've played all year. It reminds me of all the classic strategy games I used to love, and yet it doesn't make me yearn for them. That's because Limbic Entertainment managed to nail just what makes strategy games so fun. The latest Tropico release is great to look at, it's delightfully complex, and its zany and sometimes absurd humor helps make the whole experience so much more engaging than it might be otherwise. Simply put, strategy game fans owe it to themselves to check out Tropico 6.
Flight combat games are meant to offer close approximations to the feeling of being in a tense dogfight miles above the earth's surface, and once again, Ace Combat does not disappoint. The game's PSVR missions are particularly good in this regard; so good, in fact, that they even manage to outshine the considerably polished traditional gameplay mode. Series fans will no doubt enjoy all of the latest additions to the formula, particularly the weather effects and the two multiplayer offerings, but for a truly dazzling experience, the PSVR missions are hard to beat. It's not a game for everyone: The challenge and fairly repetitive mission structure could turn away casual players or those new to the series. Still, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown should serve to satisfy players craving a healthy serving of high-speed aerial combat, especially those who happen to have PSVR.
It's an odd thing to start playing a game which feels as intense as Road to Eden initially does, only to discover that just a few hours in, you've already got one of each major weapon type, your upgrade trees are nearly complete, and that you're just one fight away from the final battle. Everything that Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden gets right seems overshadowed by its general lack of depth and surprisingly short campaign. The Bearded Ladies have created solid foundation to build upon, which makes me wonder why they didn't pack in more story, more characters, more weapons, or more ways to shake up battle strategies. As it stands now, Road to Eden feels less like a full release and more like an extended demo.
Modern-era action gamers have been conditioned to expect large-scale firefights, flashy explosions, and immediate gratification in general, and that's just not what IO Interactive's latest release is about. Through all of the complex machinations and staggering amount of opportunities within its levels, Hitman 2 manages to be a game with one surprisingly simple demand: think things through. As it is in life, perception and consideration go a very long way here, and players who are willing to put in the proper amount of time and effort will see just how perplexing, engaging, and rewarding stealth action games can be. Hitman 2 will undoubtedly serve to define the stealth genre for years to come, and I can't wait to see where IO Interactive takes the series next.
Marvel's Spider-Man is at once a fantastic action game, a dramatic story-driven adventure, and a love letter to fans of Marvel's ever-endearing wall-crawler. It's also one of the strongest titles in Insomniac Games' catalog, and will no doubt be counted not only among the best games of 2018, but also among the best PlayStation 4 exclusives ever released.
Because of this, Moonlighter feels like one of the more immediately gratifying action RPGs on the current market. It may not do anything players haven't seen before, but the focus on earning and selling items transforms simple commerce from a banal activity into an addictive process that only gets more entertaining as the game progresses. There are a few annoying flies in the ointment — item descriptions don't always fit on screen, weapons occasionally miss enemies within range, and in-dungeon inventory management sometimes feels too time-consuming — but otherwise, the game's engaging blend of active shopkeeping and dungeon crawling should be more than enough to keep retro-styled action RPG fans smiling.