Comprehensive Game Reviews
Comprehensive Game Reviews
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From AAA titles to indie games, we cover it all. Our comprehensive reviews provide detailed insights to help you find your next favorite game.
IGN Fan Fest Returns With a Special Fall Edition Featuring Keanu Reeves, Dispatch, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and More
IGN Fan Fest Returns With a Special Fall Edition Featuring Keanu Reeves, Dispatch, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and MoreThe non-stop show will be filled with tons of game announcements, trailers, celebrity interviews, and exclusive reveals.
IGN ArticlesSep 16
Hollow Knight: Silksong Review - Punishing Grandeur
Hollow Knight: Silksong Review - Punishing Grandeur Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Publisher: Team Cherry Developer: Team Cherry Release: 2019 Rating: Everyone 10+ Hollow Knight: Silksong is an exemplar of its form. Games like Metroid and Castlevania helped establish the fun of an exploration and platforming adventure filled with upgrades that open up new paths to progression, and Team Cherry’s second Hollow Knight game takes that concept to a profound level of depth, sophistication, and scope. Pacing issues and a punishing approach to forward progression prevent a full-throated endorsement to every type of player, but those with significant patience can uncover a true masterpiece.  While there are some scant references to the prior game, players should be comfortable thinking of Silksong’s story as a standalone installment, in which a warrior princess bug named Hornet is taken against her will to a distant kingdom called Pharloom. After escaping, she seeks to uncover the reason for her kidnapping and the secrets of the place, gradually unfolding a story of ancient mysteries and the decayed remains of a sovereignty governed through the powers of silk and music. The worldbuilding is immaculate, from the visuals of a land that has fallen into ruin to the beautifully written dialogue between characters that fleshes out the fiction.  The environmental storytelling is backed up by rewarding exploration and traversal. Silksong’s world is truly vast, with an interconnected network of biomes that each contribute new threads to the web of understanding, from abandoned halls of long-forgotten experiments to clockwork machinery that drives the kingdom’s waning functions. Hidden paths abound, and the gradual unlocking of new shortcuts and areas that appear through the acquisition of abilities makes for a satisfying loop.  Several platforming sequences are highly challenging, demanding split-second pad/stick control for long and unforgiving stretches. I relish those challenges for their design and canny pathing, but the distance between rest points does little to contribute to that enjoyment. Instead, I found the insistence on extremely long checkpoint placement hampered the sense of pacing in several instances, since I was forced to repeatedly redo early and manageable sections just to get a chance to practice and perfect the later ones.    While combat encounters are frequent and demanding, they are tuned to reward careful attention and clever use of resources. Over the dozens of hours it takes to reach even the first of several endings, I consistently felt a sense of evolving control over the onscreen action, which is enhanced by several distinct crests, each of which alters movement, attacks, and available abilities in subtle but important ways. The distinct playstyles are yet one more way that Silksong layers in nuance. I was especially fond of many of the bosses, which often have a wide variety of interesting movesets to learn and evocative visual themes that set each apart from the rest. In particular, bosses like Lace, Phantom, and the Cogwork Dancers feel rhythmic and intense, like impactful duels between master combatants.  While the boss battles themselves are a rewarding challenge, I can’t say I was always a fan of the extreme damage each dealt, often ending individual attempts in mere seconds, or the sponge-like health pools of most, which sometimes feel like a chore to work through, even after nailing the mechanics of the fight. The frequent insistence on long, gauntlet-like runbacks to retry a given battle exacerbates those issues, which reads more like an unnecessary time sink, rather than a fun addition to the difficulty.  Like many great games, all of Silksong’s systems, difficulty, and storytelling feel intentional and crafted to be as they are. Even as particular frustrations held back some measure of my potential enjoyment, I simultaneously marveled at the care that has gone into each detail of Silksong’s measured unraveling of plot and gameplay. Even beyond the credits, hours and hours of optional endings, additional zones and bosses, and new plot elements wait to be brought to light by a devoted player. It’s a truly immense game filled with hard-won moments of discovery and revelation.  Musicians know the feeling of a piece that is woven with complexity, which takes longer to learn than most, but brings commensurate satisfaction upon mastery; Silksong is the video game equivalent, sitting ready to be played and adored, but only after appropriate levels of devotion and persistence. Score: 9 About Game Informer's review system
Game Informer ReviewsSep 16
Review: Henry Halfhead Has Half a Head, but a Whole Personality
Review: Henry Halfhead Has Half a Head, but a Whole Personality Henry Halfhead is such a personable game. Playing around in a sandbox world, watching a character who is only made up of half of a head use a special ability to hop into inanimate objects to control them with a running commentary can be great. It’s charming! I just wish that it sometimes felt a little better to play. Because while it does all work, sometimes I’d happen across a tedious objective or situation that got me feeling a bit motion-sick due to the shifts in perspective. All of Henry Halfhead is presented as an overview of Henry’s life, complete with reactive narrator changing the script based on our actions. Things begin with the character as a baby, starting to explore boundaries of a room and play around with an ability to jump into any object to move it or cause certain interactions. As our avatar finishes certain objects and they “grow,” causing areas around the initial space to expand and grant access to new locations and parts of Henry’s life. However, past places are still accessible, so we could go back to bring new items to use in old spots or perhaps complete jigsaw puzzles and more pieces are unlocked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxkEmWdS4I Lululu Entertainment’s execution is honestly really flawless and seamless. Especially when it comes to the fantastic narration. The prompts that come up as we become different objects are both funny and sometimes insightful, revealing things about the character’s preferences and life. It’s the sort of running commentary that always only adds to the experience, rather than detracts from it, and I appreciate that any other kinds of audio can sometimes be a bit more subdued so it stands out. Like if you add batteries to a radio or plug in a device to hear songs, we will get to hear some of the (also great) soundtrack. But at the same time, the narrator will sometimes comment on the music itself, which I appreciated.  There’s also such a wide range of items to become. Many of them with special interactions that come up at the push of a button. For example, becoming a toy duck or cat will cause quacking or meowing sound effects to play when you press a button. Or when I hopped into a knife during a birthday scene, I could interact with a cake to cut it. See an outlet hanging in midair near an electronic device? Plug it in to cause a light to turn on or music to play. We’re essentially set loose in a toy box where we can become every toy.  The thing about Henry Halfhead is, while I like a whole lot about it, it also frustrates me in the same way Exhausted Man could. When you can appreciate it as a freeform toy box, it is a lot of fun! There are some great interactions here. The narration is also first-rate. However, some of the challenges feel, well, exhausting. An early example involves setting a table for his birthday and preparing for the celebration. But that means going back and forth to move items from one shelf, leaping from item to item to get to it, then performing fiddly jumps between a box, chair, and table to get them in the right spot. Challenges like that can feel more tedious than entertaining sometimes, depending on the objective. Screenshots by Siliconera Worse is the camera execution and design of some challenges in Henry Halfhead could result in some motion sickness. A recurring situation involves stacking items in an area to reach X height, with the X variable increasing with each instance. The problem is that these situations can also include bouncy elements like pillows and chairs, and with the nature of a physics-based game like this, it’s possible to get discombobulated, have the camera go in odd ways, or see things careen beyond your control when trying to efficiently get through a task. It’s easy enough to deal with the first time, but from the second instance onward it definitely made me a bit nauseous.  Henry Halfhead is at its best when it allows us the freedom to do whatever we like, play around with object interactions, and enjoy the narrator’s responses to our decisions. I loved hearing about Henry and the constant color commentary. It’s so much fun to experiment! The only thing is that since this can have some physics game properties, some tasks might feel a bit more tedious than others or could involve some unexpected camera effects and perspectives that might involve some temporary discomfort. Still, it is generally delightful and fun to play with for two or three hours. Henry Halfhead is available on the Switch, PS5, and PC. The post Review: Henry Halfhead Has Half a Head, but a Whole Personality appeared first on Siliconera .
Reviews Articles and News - SiliconeraSep 16
Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji DLC Review
Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji DLC Review
IGN PC ReviewsSep 16
Town to City early access review – An enthralling entry into the city builder genre
Town to City early access review – An enthralling entry into the city builder genre Town to City is the latest city builder now in early access, and it’s a must-play for fans of the genre. This new, beautifully blocky game lets your creativity run amok against an absolutely stunning landscape, and with a wide array of customization options, it sets itself apart from other entries in the genre. Since Town to City is still in early access, fans can expect developer Galaxy Grove to add more features as the game approaches its full launch—though I'm quite impressed with what we have already. When you boot up the game, you have two options: New game (campaign) and Sandbox mode. The game’s campaign drops you in the world of Belvue, and you later gain access to a second map, Fontebrac, which introduces the game’s farming and economy features. A third map, Rocemarée, is planned to release for the campaign further down the line. Throughout the campaign, you’ll receive quests from your townspeople, who will ask you to make improvements to the city. Sometimes, they'll ask you to simply plant flowers or plop down a statue here and there. Other times, they want you to roll up your sleeves and design hedge mazes or marketplace plazas. Whatever their demand, though, you'll be rewarded with new items you can place that won't be unlockable in Sandbox mode. Villager ask. Mayor create. Screenshot by Destructoid In Sandbox mode, you have five different maps to choose from: the same two from the campaign, Belvau and Fontebrac, as well as three new ones. The three new levels—Creusemont, Ventelieu, and Montedeux—all come with their own characteristics that offer something new. Ventelieu is a totally flat, open field, allowing you to build your city however you’d like, whereas Montedeux features two massive mountains with a small crevasse in the middle, challenging you to build smartly around the craggy landscape.  Though the different maps offer something new for your first playthrough on them, they’re not procedurally generated. This means each time you choose to build on Belvau or start a new campaign, you’ll load into the same Belvau map. Fontebrac always has the giant lake in the middle, Ventelieu will forever be flat, and Montedeux always comes with its two pesky peaks. The only difference between playthroughs on a particular map is where the rocks are placed. Although this can influence your early city design, you gain the ability to delete rocks fairly early into your research progression. That’s the only terrain-modifying tool you have at your disposal. Add all these factors together, and your replayability is greatly limited. Town to City offers a plethora of items to unlock depending on your town size. Screenshot by Destructoid The upside is the campaign took me about eight to 10 hours to “complete,” or feel as satisfied as I could across the two maps it gave me. This comes out to about four to five hours per map. Tack on playthroughs for the other three Sandbox maps, and you get about 20 to 25 hours of gameplay. Not bad for an indie game still in early access.  When I was close to what I would consider completion of the campaign (there is no “true end”; the game allows you to keep building after reaching the largest city size), I ran into minor performance drops. My hamlet had reached the certified status of "Grandiose City," the eighth and largest city size, with over 100 buildings. Zooming out to view my entire settlement, which only took up roughly 75 percent of the available map, caused slight stuttering and lag. It was minor enough that it didn't disrupt my ability to enjoy the game, but it’s something still worth noting, especially for anyone who may be just at or slightly above the recommended specs.  It's not New York City, but it's still much larger than it started. Screenshot by Destructoid The selling feature for Town to City is its gridless function, and although it opens the door for your creativity to run amok, it doesn’t come without consequence. When I first began playing, I wanted my hamlet’s houses to line up on perfect parallel roads. But what originally looked like concisely angled avenues to my naked eye actually ended up slightly askew, and without a grid function to clearly show these flaws, my houses ended up resembling mangled teeth against paved pathways. I spent more time than I’d like to admit trying (and oftentimes failing) to perfect my city’s lines while its citizens watched with resignation as their houses were moved around for the umpteenth time.  At other times, decorative items didn’t align with the buildings they were placed on. Objects like benches, which can be rotated several degrees but not freely, wouldn't sit straight against walls. Now, let's be clear: I'm nitpicking here, and you can judge just how upsetting the crooked bench or uneven fencing are in the screenshots below for yourself. If you're a perfectionist like me, be aware that you may experience some eye-twitching throughout your playthrough. Whoever lives in the red house clearly is not a perfectionist. Screenshot by Destructoid Drawing straight lines is harder than it looks. Screenshot by Destructoid After playing through the campaign and starting a sandbox build, though, I tried letting loose a bit, and boy, did my time with Town to City only get better. I curved my paths, embraced uneven distances between buildings, and shrugged at my decorations’ lack of uniformity. And what do you know, what I thought would be chaos ended in harmony.  You can still very much make your cookie-cutter neighborhoods if that’s what you so desire. It might be a bit more difficult than other city builders, but it is very much possible to arrange your roads, buildings, and miscellaneous decor all neat and tidy. If I, a certified neat freak, could offer some advice, it’s to learn to let go. The game is more fun when it’s played with the freedom it’s designed for. What duly impressed me about Town to City , though, was its impressive number of customization options. Not only is there a large amount of decorations and building types to unlock with each branch of the research tree, but how those decorations can be placed varies depending on where you're trying to place them. Every flower and lily pad in this screenshot is from the same item. Screenshot by Destructoid Take a flower patch, for example. This one simple item changes its shape depending on where you try to place it. Hover it over a window, and it looks like a flower box. Line it up against a wall, and it becomes a hanging flower garland. Place it in water, and it becomes lily pads. This mechanic opens up a level of exploration in design that most other city builders simply don't offer, and it had me excitedly unlocking decor in the research tree at every chance I got. Forget unlocking a bakery or a carpenter's station. Give me my flowers! All in all, Town to City might not be without minor flaws, but it is an incredibly enthralling city builder. I was glued to my computer when building my villages, and I’m looking forward to tackling the other maps I haven’t gotten a chance to sink my teeth into yet. There are enough replayability options to keep me hooked for a healthy amount of time, and I’m hoping fans get even more gameplay features as the game approaches its full release. The post Town to City early access review – An enthralling entry into the city builder genre appeared first on Destructoid .
Reviews Archive – DestructoidSep 15
Metal Eden Review – Shooting Through The Noise
Metal Eden Review – Shooting Through The Noise Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Deep Silver Developer: Reikon Games Rating: Mature Poland-based studio Reikon Games has only been around since 2014, but in its decade of development, it has made a name for itself creating stylish, action-forward cyberpunk games. Its debut, 2017’s Ruiner, was itself a great isometric shooter, but in hindsight, it was a look toward the studio’s future and its second game: Metal Eden. Like Ruiner, Metal Eden is a futuristic neon-lit shooter set in a cyberpunk dystopia, but this time, from a first-person perspective. It blends excellent first-person gunplay with movement tech that turns the city of Moebius into a parkour playground, and the resulting gameplay is hyper-fast, frantic, and fun. Though its narrative and level design sometimes get in the way of that, the entire package is still a setpiece-filled action romp and one of the year’s best shooters.  In the world of Metal Eden, Hyper Units are disposable androids capable of inhuman feats thanks to a cyberpowered armor that allows them to dash, grapple, jetpack, and wall-run through just about any environment, and each unit is trained for cybernetic warfare, with a seven-gun arsenal in tow. You play as Aska, a special Hyper Unit tasked with saving the citizens of Moebius from imminent destruction. That leads her through derelict factories, deserts, mining facilities, and into the realms of Engineers, who possess Cores she desperately needs for her mission. It’s a solid foundation for the 7-hour adventure, and a voice-in-your-comms doesn’t let you forget about it, sometimes to the detriment of the game.  While the voice acting is great, when you’re not engaged in multi-wave arena battles, there’s almost always a voice in your ear discussing their motives, their history, and their desires, all through sci-fi jargon that eventually bounced right off of me. Reikon is attempting to tell an enriched narrative, and I enjoy how much the studio focuses on walking players through Aska’s journey to save Moebius, which has been threatened with what is essentially a ticking time bomb; its finale leaves a lot to be desired, but I still found the overall story to be a commendable effort from Reikon. Its biggest flaw, though, is how often it gets in the way of the real star of Metal Eden: the action. That said, the action was more than enough to pull me through each mission, as I constantly looked forward to the next setpiece, the next weapon, or even the next upgrade station to make my shotgun or grenade launcher more powerful. Metal Eden isn’t stingy with Dust, the currency used to upgrade weapons, found in canisters placed throughout levels or given upon defeating enemies. By the time I finished the game, only one of my seven weapons wasn’t fully upgraded, and I appreciate Reikon allowing me to unlock most of Aska’s potential in the first playthrough. Each weapon, whether it was the standard-issue submachine gun with unlimited ammo but a temperature-related cooldown, the energy weapon that melts enemy armor, or my personal favorite, an assault rifle with a secondary fire option that turns it into a powerful sniper, proved useful in combat. Firefights get so hectic that there were countless encounters where I used every single weapon at my disposal, whether it was a strategic need or because I ran out of ammo for another gun.    Though I always enjoyed the combat, I wish it were more diegetic rather than arena-based. My favorite moments were when Metal Eden channeled another Poland-based studio’s game, Ghostrunner, to turn linear sections into parkour runthroughs where I needed to kill enemies with quick precision to advance and maintain momentum. But most of the combat happened when I entered a large arena, and a random sci-fi voice told me when I finished a wave and when another wave was beginning. These arenas are well-designed, with armor, health, and ammo pickups strategically placed about, and excellent wall-running and grapple opportunities, too, but they still grew dull. It doesn’t help that the runs between these arenas were often the type of combat encounters I actually wanted more of.  Regardless, Aska only became more and more fun to use throughout Metal Eden as I unlocked more of my weapons’ potential and became more comfortable firing them while running on walls or grappling through the air, using my jetpack to extend my airtime. When I fully understood Aska’s set of weaponry and movement tech, and more importantly, how to take advantage of both in combat, each subsequent encounter felt like an extreme dose of adrenaline.  Similar to the narrative’s intrusion into the excellent first-person gameplay, there were a handful of times in Metal Eden where levels went wide, allowing Aska to morph into a ball – yes, it’s very reminiscent of Metroid Prime – where you zap enemies and target them with lock-on missiles. While cool in theory, these sections are easily the worst, and rolling around as a metal ball in no way compares to the excitement of first-person shooting, wall-running, and jetpacking through this dystopia.  Throughout my time in Metal Eden, I couldn’t help but imagine just how good a sequel I hope Reikon makes could be. This is a great start in the FPS genre for the team; its ideas are strong, and with refinement, Aska’s next mission could be as excellent as the Ghostrunner and Doom Eternal adventures it’s clearly inspired by. Though the star of the show – its first-person shooting and movement – is sometimes weighed down by an overreaching narrative and boring morph ball sections, when Metal Eden shines, it’s as bright as the sun that sheds light on Moebius’ dark underbelly. Score: 8 About Game Informer's review system
Game Informer ReviewsSep 15
LEGO Voyagers Review
LEGO Voyagers ReviewLEGO Voyagers is a very different kind of LEGO game than the licensed stuff we already know and love, but it’s a good kind of different. If only this mandatory-two-player-co-op adventure weren’t over so quickly.
IGN PC ReviewsSep 15
Lego Voyagers Review - Building A Relationship
Lego Voyagers Review - Building A RelationshipThere are so many great co-op experiences to be had right now that my biggest issue isn't finding something to play with my wife or kids, it's finding enough time to play them all. But I'm glad I made the time for Lego Voyagers , because it's the sort of game that is immediately, obviously special, and culminates in a beautiful final few minutes that made my kids and me care deeply for a simple pair of Lego bricks. Lego Voyagers is a two-player co-op game, so there's no solo mode, nor can you pair up with a bot partner. Played online or--even better--with two players sharing a couch, the game takes only about four hours to go through. But that's time very well spent, I can tell you, after having played it with my daughter and son at different times. Lego Voyagers stars two minuscule Lego bricks. Both nameless, they're each personified only by their single googly-eye sticker, as well as their different colors; one is blue, the other is red. The simple, wordless story is nonetheless affecting. As the pair live out their lives as neighbors and buddies atop a small island built of Lego bricks, a rocket in the distance can be seen taking off, awakening in them a passion for science and space travel. Heading off from home, the pair go on an adventure to explore this passion together. Continue Reading at GameSpot
GameSpot - Game ReviewsSep 15
Lego Voyagers Review – A Creative Co-Op Platformer
Lego Voyagers Review – A Creative Co-Op Platformer Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC Publisher: Annapurna Interactive Developer: Light Brick Rating: Everyone Every completed Lego set is a collaboration between the designers and the builder; it's fun both because a team made a beautiful set and because you're the one who put it together. Lego Voyagers, a co-op puzzle platformer from Light Brick Studio, made me feel the same way. Its adorable aesthetic and wordless storytelling make this brief adventure one worth sharing with family or a friend, but its distant camera angle and visual filters were frustrating obstacles on an otherwise picturesque road. At the end of the journey, though, my partner and I are the ones who completed the puzzle, and that makes it so much sweeter. As a fan of couch co-op, I've been delighted to see a resurgence of two-player experiences over the past several years, and Lego Voyagers is an exciting addition to that lineup. Like Hazelight Studios' Split Fiction and It Takes Two, Lego Voyagers is a strictly two-player experience: you cannot play it solo. Luckily, I have a fiancée at home now, and after taking one glance at the game, she was more than happy to play alongside me. If you don't have a fiancée (which is fine, by the way), Lego Voyagers comes with a Friend's Pass so that you can play for free with a friend online. This game stars a pair of Lego pieces, one blue and one red, that goofily roll around the map, which is also gorgeously crafted from Legos. It's visually charming, from its intricately crafted mountainsides to its minimalist animals, like butterflies represented by a tiny, flapping triangle. In addition to flopping around, one button is dedicated to "speaking," which makes your respective Lego piece make a cute babble of gibberish. An exception to this is near a train section, where pressing the button makes the characters say "choo choo.” It’s as cute as it sounds. While many surfaces are smooth, some have studs – those little nubs that allow Lego pieces to stick together – and the tap of a button here has your Lego guy lock onto the grid to move, allowing for more precise movement and platforming. That same button picks up loose Lego pieces, which you'll use to build solutions to puzzles. I was slightly disappointed in this regard, solely because 80 percent of constructions are just bridges or ramps, but the last hour of the game cranks up the creativity to wonderful effect. You can also attach yourself to the other player to link up into one long Lego piece and roll around together.  In addition to building sequences, Lego Voyagers has you solve simple puzzles, like bringing generator pieces from one area to another or operating machinery to help your partner reach distant platforms. My favorite genre of puzzle is when the game has you collaborate to pilot a vehicle, like a boat or car, with one person steering and the other controlling the acceleration. These puzzles make the most of the game's co-op nature, and I understand why single-player isn’t an option. Lego Voyagers is also a platformer, which I did not enjoy as much as the puzzles. You can use the build button to snap your character to studs in surfaces, allowing you to zip to platforms you need to reach, but these platforms are usually just a single stud wide and barely the full length of your jump, so some sequences take a few attempts. This only becomes frustrating because of the distant, angled camera. Lego Voyagers rightfully wants to show off its beautiful visuals, but this means making the players very small on the screen. When you combine that with a fixed camera and visual effects like bloom, depth perception is a challenge, and trying to make precise jumps feels unintentionally difficult. Lego Voyagers doesn't punish you for dying, but some of the platforming sequences are just messy enough that I worry whether a co-op party of two young kids would be able to make it through. Couple that with one particularly difficult rocket minigame near the end, and I'd go as far as to say that, despite its extremely kid-friendly aesthetics, I'd recommend this game for slightly older kids, maybe 10 and up, who might have an easier time getting through it. Despite my misgivings with the platforming, however, the story more than makes up for it. Despite a vague start, you'll know exactly what's going on by the end, and it's a stunning, bittersweet tale. The last hour in particular is so effective and simple that it's become one of my favorite story moments of the year – if you start this game, you owe it to yourself to finish it. While I wish it had an adjustable camera or the ability to tweak visual settings on console, I had a great time regardless. Ultimately, whether it's online or local, the dedicated two-player experience is Lego Voyagers' secret weapon. The game is intentionally abstract and open to interpretation, so you'll fill in the gaps with your partner: you create a relationship between your Lego avatars, shorthand for game terms to get through levels, and eventually build a new, player-specific version of the game for yourself. Light Brick Studio did a great job designing Lego Voyagers, but the experience I built with my partner is what will stick with me. Score: 8 About Game Informer's review system
Game Informer ReviewsSep 15
Hollow Knight: Silksong Review
Hollow Knight: Silksong ReviewAn unapologetically challenging sequel packed full of sharp platforming, enticing exploration, and nail-biting combat.
IGN PC ReviewsSep 14