Joshua Duckworth's Reviews
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn excels in as many areas as it falls short, meaning players' mileage will vary based on where they can compromise.
South Park: Snow Day is a budget game, but instead of something brief but replayable with a lot of South Park humor and bursts of fun, players get something muted, limited, and shallower than even that detail would suggest. It offers some fun across its short runtime, but it's ultimately forgettable for any roguelike or South Park fan.
Despite a few shortcomings, Assassin's Creed Mirage completes its mission of being a love letter to the earliest days of the franchise.
Redfall is ultimately a fun experience thanks to the world, the enemies, and the gunplay itself, but as a whole, it's an incredibly shallow one too. Because of this, some may question whether it's worth the price tag, but it's noteworthy that Redfall is launching on Xbox Game Pass. It feels like the game is designed for the service, with an experience that is easily digestible, is full of simple mindless fun, and is easy to move on from.
Atomic Heart's story, gameplay, and world design have promise, but the payoff is lacking across the board.
As a result, Need for Speed Unbound feels like it comes to a stop before it ever gets going. The polish in the moment-to-moment gameplay cannot be ignored, but as a whole, Need for Speed Unbound is just another forgettable entry in the long-running franchise.
Despite a few shortcomings and inconsistencies, The Dark Pictures: Devil in Me brings the anthology's first season to a powerful end.
God of War Ragnarok lives up to the hype and expectations of the franchise but also manages to subvert and exceed them in many ways.
Gotham Knights offers a fun and satisfying gameplay loop, but many features lack the follow-through needed to make a great, cohesive game.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords translates well to the Switch, but it unfortunately suffers from severe technical problems.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed's Switch port tries to capitalize on nostalgia but ultimately fails to capture what made the original game so special.
Tango Gameworks' Ghostwire: Tokyo builds a paranormal mystery in a grounded setting but loses some of its shine in its pacing and combat.
Although Piranha Bytes' Elex 2 is not without its minor shortcomings, it is the definition of what all open-world RPGs should be.
Roll7's OlliOlli World provides a unique skateboarding game experience, filled with relaxing environments and tense challenges.
Rainbow Six Extraction is a mixed bag of good ideas and weak implementations. It’s unfortunate that the bad manages to outweigh the good, because underneath it all, Rainbow Six Extraction's gameplay approach holds promise. It’ll be interesting to see how Ubisoft supports this title in the weeks and months to come, but it’s really hard to see how it can fix a lot of core issues within the game.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy features an emotional yet hilarious story, immersive if insane decisions, and exciting if bloated combat.
Back 4 Blood still comes out as the best Left 4 Dead-inspired game in recent memory, taking the core design and innovating on it just enough to keep everything fresh and fun. Where Back 4 Blood gets things right, it does them really well, but where it doesn’t is often quite obvious.
Tales of Arise takes the franchise to new heights with an emotional story, unique characters, fun combat, and more defining features.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite has an interesting premise: co-op shooter set in the Alien universe where players must push their abilities, refine their build, and face a continuous onslaught of enemies. In reality, though, it’s a bug-filled slog that proves to be a one-trick pony.
Overall, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition advertised itself as taking the already-popular trilogy, bringing it to modern consoles, and giving it smart improvements. There's a lot that it does to improve the games without detracting from the core experience, and that says something. The first game is 13 years old and the third game is 9 years old at the time of this writing, and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition makes them feel much more current and recent. It's hard to imagine making the original trilogy any better, but these remasters definitely make them much more current.