Latest Reviews
Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown has a serviceable story, but its lack of branching dialogue options and its heavy emphasis on combat render it a less satisfying experience compared to its recent Shadowrun peers. Fortunately its tactical combat shines given good co-op partners, although the weak progression options and its lackluster...
I like Infinite Crisis, especially Coast City, but I just wish there were an easier way to play more of it. Having tools to learn new Champions and strategies is important in MOBAs, so it’s confusing that more bot modes aren’t available, especially when all but one queue is closed....
Forager
There's about an hour's worth of story in the The Forger - a languid movie that's stretched thin to fill out the running time. As proof of that, Christopher Plummer's codger is given an actual "talk to the tombstone" scene at one point - for no other reason than to...
State of Decay deservedly shattered Xbox Live Arcade sales records in 2013: it is a potent mix of RPG gameplay systems that all fuse together to create an unpredictable and tense survival experience. Time hasn’t taken anything away from that for Year One Survival Edition, and though it hasn’t fixed...
Halo: Spartan Strike's upgraded parts aren't immediately apparent, but the sum total is pretty striking. A pinch of better aiming here, a heaping helping of Promethian enemies there, and annoying microtransactions nowhere make Spartan Strike worth the quick and cheap sub-ten-dollar tour.
There are many ways in which this Assassin’s Creed could have gone terribly wrong, but didn’t. Its problems lie, instead, in its inability to truly let the player off the leash, and its uncharacteristically soulless presentation. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is by no means a poorly made game, it’s just...
Dungeons 2
It’s a shame Dungeons 2’s above-ground RTS battles are so primitive and poor, because the underground dungeon-management stuff actually works fairly well. It’s nothing new or special — another would-be Dungeon Keeper successor — but that’s not the worst idea in the world. Dungeons 2 could have been a nice,...
From a distance, Crypt of the NecroDancer seems like a very mathematical game. The logic used to dispatch enemies should ideally play out like a neat algorithm, flawlessly executed once you know their patterns and how to manipulate them. That’s not how it works, of course, as the dungeons are...
StarDrive 2
StarDrive 2 isn't anything but honest about what it is: it says, right at the start of the manual, that the goal is to conquer the galaxy. But the focus on extermination saps excitement and possibilities from the strategic level, and the tactical minigames don’t have the AI needed to...
Titan Souls’ sparse world and lore is merely the delivery device for its creative fights that hinge on your perception and skillful mastery of its simple, yet fluid and responsive controls. Though the experience is short, it’s potent, as weathering every titan’s impossibly lethal storm and finding that one true...
I am Bread
While it's not quite the absurdly violent physics spectacle that Surgeon Simulator 2013 is, I Am Bread has its own unique charms, with a darkly silly tone, a minimal but effective story, and open-ended level design that's richer than the simple premise might lead you to expect. Its clumsy controls...
Gosling—who even when he’s stomping on skulls in Drive—has always played someone rather likeable in movies. With his first written-and-directed film, he appears to be trying too hard to show that he has a dark, nihilistic side, that he’s much harsher than a “hey girl” meme. There are some interesting...
