Uninspired characters and relatively meaningless consequences make Little Hope a bit of a slog.
Murdered: Soul Suspect has a lot of great ideas, but none of them come together in a satisfying way.
The Mastermind gets to have most of the fun in Resident Evil: Resistance, but surviving is less than a blast.
Batman Arkham Knight: Catwoman's Revenge has a wonderfully twisted setting, but an- all-too-brief campaign doesn't utilize it enough. Like Arkham Knight's Batgirl DLC before it, this is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair.
Fun in small bursts, but Days Gone's repetition, bland world, and meandering story make for an unremarkable ride.
A briefly entertaining yet inessential addition to The Evil Within universe.
A beautifully-designed game with a great creation toolkit, LittleBigPlanet 3 is let down by unimaginative co-op & bugs.
There's some good stuff here, but Barry's chapter is clunky, & heavy-handed exposition undermines its previous sharpness.
Cold Darkness Awakened is a welcome change of pace to Rise of the Tomb Raider’s usual rhythms. Though its gameworld isn’t particularly interesting, it does a great job at escalating tension and resolves Lara’s fight against an infected horde with an explosive climax.
Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch is a brief, but mostly entertaining chapter in Rise of the Tomb Raider's lore. While I would have happily swapped the return to the Soviet Installation for a new challenge tomb, its supernatural elements added a noticeably different feel and a welcome sense of tension to Lara's new adventure.
Imagination takes a backseat in Revelations 2, but great co-op and an intriguing story pumps blood through its veins.
Revelations 2 is an entertaining horror experience; let's hope Capcom aims a little higher next time.
The Consequence falls short of greatness, but chills with gruesome bosses and spectacular environments.
Until Dawn is an inconsistent horror game, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun.
Although its clunky controls and inconsistent voice acting dates Heavy Rain, it still remains enjoyable (if mad) B-grade sholock. A stunning visual upgrade on the PlayStation 4 makes this the version to grab if you're new to developer Quantic Dream's games, and existing fans should find enjoyment in a richer aesthetic this time around.
Tough gameplay and a beautiful new terrain balances out over-familiar questing in this worthwhile adventure.
There's a lot of momentum in Resident Evil: Revelations 2; fingers crossed it can keep it up to cross the finish line.
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a great-looking remaster of a still fun, ridiculously over-the-top shooter from last generation that pokes fun at the genre while introducing its own distinctively violent, melee-heavy playstyle. On the other hand, it’s almost completely devoid of new content, which makes it less attractive for returning fans who were hoping for anything more than a facelift.
Detroit: Become Human is a poignantly pulpy interactive sci-fi drama where your choices can impact events to a greater and more satisfying degree than in most games of this type. Though I wish its story had been handled with a softer touch, especially considering the subtlety that can be conveyed through its tech and performances, its well-written and acted central trio were vital enough to me that I found myself feeling genuine distress when they were in danger and a sense of victory when they triumphed. Most importantly, Detroit offers a multitude of transparent branching paths that entice further playthroughs, and choices have a permanence that raise the stakes throughout.
The Evil Within 2 gives you more options to play your way in a much bigger survival-horror playground than the original. Although a disjointed plot and weak protagonist make it slow to get started, being pursued through an intriguingly bizarre world by plentiful and disturbing monsters kept my palms sweaty and my heart in my throat thanks to a strict adherence to the most important survival horror rule: you should always be on the back foot.