Solium Infernum is a turn-based strategy game dedicated to board game lovers, with a very evocative setting that opens the door to epic battles between hordes of demons. Although there is no shortage of clashes, the lion's share goes to the managerial component, with a very careful management of diplomatic aspects. Difficulty and duration of the matches are widely customizable, but always taking into account a specific target of players, which is certainly not the casual audience. One of the best representatives of its kind, whose only obvious flaw is the miniatures of the Archdemons, which are really too amateurish.
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Anomaly Agent is a debut with a bang for Phew Phew Games, which arrives on our monitors with a beat'em up with Canabalt-style endless runner elements, a charismatic and crazy protagonist, plus music to shoot at full volume that accompanies the action in beautiful pixel art. The attack and dodge combination starts with the simple press of two buttons and gradually becomes more and more complex with combos and special weapons. Sudden gameplay changes and gigantic bosses each one with its own fighting style make this game unmissable for those who love action.
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Howl is a puzzle game in which planning your moves and predicting the consequences play the lion's share. Keeping enemies' reactions in mind for the next six turns can prove very challenging, although with the assisted mode or a healthy dose of trial and error you will be able to complete all sixty levels in two or three evenings. The darkly grim story, medieval setting, and distinctive graphics make this a thoroughly interesting game. Once completed there is no reason to replay it except to try to earn all the achievements, but it remains a recommended experience for lovers of this genre of games.
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Recent unfortunate events led us to think that the Commandos-like genre would struggle to come up with new quality games, but here comes Stargate: Timekeepers to turn the tide, while rehabilitating the SG-1 IP that had fallen somewhat into oblivion. Vast and highly structured levels filled with enemies to avoid, overcome or eliminate by taking advantage of the environment, an AI that knows when to turn a blind eye and charismatic characters with exclusive abilities make this game a must buy for all stealth RTS lovers.
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Blood West is an FPS with a strong stealth component and a difficulty worthy of soulslike that will see you try and try various ways to eliminate enemies. The penalties given every time you die can make your character almost unplayable in the long run, but once you've tamed the insane difficulty curve, the various builds you can do are very different from each other and you'll definitely have fun experimenting. The sound is excellent and the lowpoly graphics are good, although it would have been appropriate to make the maps a little richer. Some will find it very punishing, and the absence of difficulty levels doesn't come to its aid, but the Wild West is an unforgiving world.
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Hirilun doesn't mess around and immediately presents itself for what it is: an extremely fast, difficult, and punishing first person runner where even the smallest error can make the difference between a great and a failed run. It takes a long time to memorize the optimal route, only to have you bitterly discover that there is actually a much faster way to the finish line, although it requires even greater precision. Definitely intended for hardcore audiences who are not scared to try the same jump hundreds of times before finding perfection. A game for the few, but those few will like it.
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Sociable Soccer 24 is fun and reintroduces the arcade spirit of 16-bit soccer games at its best, while also trying to keep up with the times with unlockable players, daily rewards, and various other mechanics typical of mobile gaming, strictly without in-app purchases – you dare! The 1990s are long gone, however, so exceptional depth and gameplay for that era can now aspire to the title of "casual" at best. It's not a criticism, but that Sensible Soccer capable in its day of filling a lot of afternoons, today is just a game to get in a quick game or two from time to time.
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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a huge game in which exploration plays a very important role, as every corner of the Western Frontier is full of plants to catalog, ingredients to collect and materials to use to improve our equipment. The fights are very addictive and it is essential to combine stealth actions with raids based on the surprise effect. The proprietary Snowdrop engine offers us a beautiful graphic representation, which combined with a quality soundtrack guarantee an almost cinematic experience. Those looking for non-stop action might find a few too many dead moments, but it remains an open world shooter adventure of extreme quality despite never trying to introduce any novelty to the genre.
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Iron Marines Invasion is a Real Time Action Strategy that despite offering a casual approach, with very few options compared to most popular RTSs, manages to provide an excellent level of challenge. Colorful and fast-paced, with missions that hardly last more than ten minutes, it entices you to experiment thanks to the ability to change troops on the fly, although after a couple of defeats you will already know which soldiers to start with. A pleasant confirmation that even games initially designed for smartphones can be appealing on PC. Those looking for hardcore strategy, however, will prefer to skip it.
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Astral Ascent offers the usual roguelite gameplay where you have to die a ton of times before you have a decent build to progress, with a somewhat nebulous system of spells and power-ups at first. After the first couple of hours without any particular emotions, however, the game explodes showing all its potential, especially once all four heroes are unlocked. At that point it becomes one of the best video games of this genre, despite the fact that not much attention has been given to the platformer component. If you love characters to grow with thousands of combinations, you've come to the right place.
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Berzerk is a timeless classic whose gameplay has aged very well, in fact it is even more popular now than it was then, thanks to advances in hardware. This Recharged edition brings back the spirit of the original in a modern way, but it doesn't manage to turn it into a more complete game than a simple casual score attack. While the desire to maintain a certain fidelity to the original concept is understandable, there has been a real misstep in the offer of additional content, with only a handful of extra challenges that are not at all challenging. So it risks not even pleasing fans of the original.
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WarioWare: Move It! is a masterpiece of minimalist gameplay where a level is completed in a couple of seconds. Incredibly, all the more than two hundred challenges are very distinct from each other and all of fine quality, without any of them seeming to be added to make up the numbers. The Story Mode is already a lot of fun, but the challenges designed specifically for local multiplayer are small strokes of genius. All with a graphic design that highlights the insaneness of the production. At first, it's not so easy to understand what the various mini-games ask of us, but it's all a matter of practice.
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Wandering Sword is a journey into an ancient China to be explored from top to bottom, meeting wonderful characters and engaging in pitched battles in which tactics, party members and character build are crucial. Progression is quite fast-paced and debunks the cliché that would have Eastern games to be based on grinding. The main campaign is fairly linear, but there are enough side quests that provide variety to the adventure, meticulously narrated with plenty of text. The HD-2D graphics are particularly well-chosen in this genre of games and are another selling point.
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Achilles: Legends Untold is a good mix between RPGs with hack and slash action like Diablo and souls-likes in which every checkpoint is an achievement. The wide range of weapons, each with unique characteristics and combat styles, invite experimentation even to just see the animations of the protagonist as he crushes, kills and rips apart enemies. The story set in Greek mythology could only be interesting, and the fights are fun, even if some enemies appear out of the blue due to the absence of zoom. There are no classes - Achilles is Achilles! - but quite different builds can be created.
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When you're not going all-in on fast-paced action, focusing on story and atmosphere, you definitely need to capture the player's attention to avoid falling into the walking sim trap. The Invincible succeeds from the very first minutes, plunging us into a situation in which the last thing we want is to run like crazy into the unknown, preferring to move cautiously aware that every step could be the last. This is thanks to a superlative narrative technique combined with a perfect graphic representation. It's not a survival horror but a novel written in the form of an adventure, and lovers of the genre will love it.
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Haters will say that nothing has changed in Just Dance 2024 Edition and that the few new features are nothing more than a remix – to stay on the subject – of modes already present in the more than twenty releases of this franchise. While this is true, there's actually no way to improve an already perfect format, so you can only smooth out the edges and make the experience better and better. Despite a somewhat subdued playlist compared to some previous chapters, Ubisoft churns out a complete and fun party game that offers the best of itself in local multiplayer, that is, with real friends to go wild with.
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The Fabulous Fear Machine must have been hatched by some really sadistic people, because it is one of the creepiest games you will find around, despite being a simplified 4X with a board game structure. The concept of spreading fake news to fuel panic is portrayed with a lot of sarcasm and a graphic depiction that recalls the old horror comic books of the 1950s. Like all games of this type, it becomes repetitive in the long run despite attempts to add new features to each mission, but the particularly engaging story will motivate you to continue.
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Those who expected major innovations in Sonic Superstars should not have expected major innovations in Sonic Superstars. Sonic always remains Sonic, precisely because he is Sonic. New heights have been reached in this particular type of level design, which alternates sections in which the hedgehog splashes like a pinball ball, apparently without any possibility of control on our part, to almost pixel-perfect movements in which excellent timing is also required. Bosses, as always, require careful analysis of movement patterns. Everything else is a pleasant side dish, but at the base there is always the old but superlative gameplay of Sonic.
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Those who have been enthusiastic about Slay the Spire should also jump on Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles without delay. Everyone else will find a complete deck builder in which instead of cards there are dice, with which to build chains of combos playing on the dualism Purification and Corruption. The huge amount of Oracles, dice and Blessings to unlock, Sentinels to upgrade and enemies to defeat guarantees excellent replayability even if the too many combinations available favor luck a little too much at the expense of strategy. The graphics are inspired even if the colors chosen, light blue and crimson, do not enjoy a good contrast.
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There is nothing wrong with Limerick: Cadence Mansion. No bugs to report, no glaring gameplay problems, no frame rate drops, nothing. The entire production does, however, flaw in experience, from the complicated graphics setup menu that made me desist from playing with the settings, to the banality of many puzzles, more appropriate to a Professor Layton series than a survival horror. Textures, 3D models, and lighting are close to amateurish, which should not necessarily be seen as a negative aspect, but unfortunately in this kind of games atmosphere is everything, so it would have deserved more polish.
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