MonsterVine
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Latest Reviews
Team Sonic Racing
Team Sonic Racing has an amazing soundtrack that’s chock-full of stellar remixes of classic Sonic tunes. I’m a sucker for Rooftop Run, no matter what game it’s in, and the remix and track in Team Sonic Racing based on that stage are top-notch. The same goes for the Seaside Hill-based...
Rage 2
What’s perhaps Rage 2’s biggest issue is its goal of gamifying everything to such an extreme degree. To upgrade your character you need to acquire certain items, but each aspect of your arsenal needs its own separate one. There’s a staggering nine different “upgrade tokens” needed, and the end result...
Dangerous Driving
It also doesn’t help that the tracks themselves lack any sort of personality or distinctive visual landmarks, so you never really even have a good sense of how far along in a lap you are. While on that subject, the previously mentioned persistent wrecks, while a neat idea, causes an...
Observation
However, if you expect everything to be wrapped up in a tight conclusion like the developer’s previous game, Stories Untold, you’d be wrong. The mystery and anticipation leads to an ambiguous ending that left me with more questions than answers. It was an interesting ending to be sure, but I’d...
In addition to all these titles, there’s a digital book that shows off art and concepts from the included titles. The best part has to be the in-depth interviews with all sorts of different staff members from the franchise as well as the Netflix series. The book offers some real...
Close to the Sun
Close to the Sun wants to be Big Important Art, but it tries so hard to be Big Important Art that it undercuts itself. As it is, it’s a decent adventure and exploration game with some eye-rolling action sequences and a few good jump scares that are telegraphed almost as...
Visually, Paws on Fire is incredibly average. The animations in the opening cutscene are unpolished, but models look fine in gameplay for the most part. Stages feel fitting and don’t distract from gameplay, and enemies come in more varieties than just “woolies” this time, which is refreshing. The music can...
Masquerada is pretty and plays well but I think it’s reasonable that we can expect more from a game’s story than just having one. Storytelling basics like pacing and ‘showing not telling’ are the difference between Masquerada and Journey. Jam packing a lot of story into a game is not...
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The change is definitely an interesting decision, but I honestly feel it’s a bit too harsh. Especially when it’s a much harder game than the Souls series in that you can’t really cheese it for the most part; you actually have to engage with and master the combat system and...
Mortal Kombat 11
The visuals of Mortal Kombat 11 are fantastic, with special attacks and ridiculous gore that has never looked better. A couple character faces are a bit disorienting, but the vast majority of Mortal Kombat 11 looks incredibly impressive. The music is fittingly intense, and the remix of the movie’s theme...
Tropico 6 feels more like a Cities Skylines with a “Caribbean dictator” mod than a Tropico game, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does change the nature of the game. Traditionally Tropico has been about building a dysfunctional state and trying not to get overthrown, where this feels a...
Visually, Iron Rain is a mess. The framerate stutters more often than it runs smoothly, and completely slows down the game at points. The camera gets stuck on the surrounding bugs sometimes when they’re a bit too close, the models clip and jump all around, and having too many enemies...
