Game Informer
Over 30 years celebrating the best of games in print and online.
Latest Reviews
ScreamRide
I have spent many happy hours tormenting patrons in the Roller Coaster Tycoon series. Though ScreamRide doesn’t have the simulation elements of Frontier’s most famous theme park experience, it still has nauseating and dangerous contraptions that push riders to the edge of their sanity. Sadly, your interactions with these thrill...
Dragon Ball Z has a good track record in the world of video games, especially when compared to other animated franchises. Some of the games have been undeniable duds, and none of them do much in terms of bringing in the uninitiated, but the good ones are appealing and do...
Traditional hand-drawn animation feels like a lost art, but Aaru's Awakening is an incredible reminder of the magic inherent to this antique craft. Modeled after ‘70s comics and animated films, every vista and enemy in Aaru’s Awakening was painstakingly drawn with pencils on paper before it was scanned into a...
The final version of Dead or Alive 5 is here, but it carries some baggage along with it. The original release was a serviceable entry in 2012, even if it highlighted how little the series has evolved. With Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, Team Ninja has assembled the most...
One of the things I love about speculative fiction is diving headlong into a new world and figuring out the details as the story unfolds. The Order: 1886 is a triumph of world building, ripe to be explored by players who enjoy that sensation of confusion and discovery as the...
Total War: Attila doesn’t reinvent the wheel – or the aqueduct. Instead, it capitalizes on the franchise’s longstanding strong points with engaging combat and plenty of decision-making at the civic level as you manage an enormous empire. Several different modes are available, including a few different ways to play the...
Hand of Fate
In Hand of Fate, you use a constantly growing deck of cards to form the very dungeons that you move through. You challenge increasingly difficult bosses, and seek to defeat the ominous dealer. Although Hand of Fate hinges on cards, it’s not a card game; it’s a roguelike action/RPG, and...
Outsmarting the guards and making a great escape is every prisoner's dream, but as The Escapists demonstrates, it isn't easy. You meticulously plan, craft tools, wait for openings, and hope your plan goes off without a hitch. While the premise is interesting, the gameplay relies too much on repetition, never capturing the adrenaline rush...
I appreciate when a game has plenty of charm, but it needs to support other elements that are executed well. Call me a grump if you must, but an abundance of quirk and whimsy cannot completely compensate for threadbare design and clunky mechanics. That’s a lesson thoroughly reinforced by Grow...
Evolve
Turtle Rock hasn't been shy about getting Evolve into the hands of players. The developer provided play sessions at virtually every gaming convention over the past year, and offered fans extended alpha and beta sessions before release. That "proof is in the pudding" approach revealed the core gameplay experience of Evolve, but also opened...
Gunman Clive 2 catches you off-guard with its wild trajectory and quiet sense of humor. It begins as an old-school shooter with a western slant, and while it never completely abandons that premise, you quickly find yourself flying through the air, riding in mine carts, and leaping from the backs...
Upon seeing Greek pottery art at a museum last year, I remarked to a friend that this would make a cool video game. “Someone is totally already doing exactly that,” he replied. I’m glad someone had the idea way before me and had the skills to execute it so well;...
