Andrei Dumitrescu's Reviews
The Banner Saga is a great game as long as the player is willing to accept its theme and its overall tone, while also harboring at least a little bit of love for the turn-based battle system.
I have never fully understood the narrative or the mechanics of the experience, but I liked its trippy vibe and the weird, weird spaces it allowed me to explore as I was searching for lightning and shelter.
The development team at Daedalic Entertainment has created an enjoyable experience, but one that asks players to accept its quirks if they are looking for hours of solid but unexceptional role-playing gameplay.
Strike Vector is a solid design and it remains to be seen whether there are enough fans of its mix of mechanics to make it a success in the long term.
Line of Defense Tactics – Tactical Advantage has a few solid ideas when it comes to the actual gameplay, but the presentation and the story are not up to par and the game cannot deliver anything similar to already established franchises like XCOM or Jagged Alliance.
The outlook of the Shining Rock Software created game is too bleak and, while it might inspire some thinking about the future of mankind as resources dwindle, it's unlikely to keep gamers coming back to play.
Infested Planet is a good title that can provide many hours of intense action and solid strategic thinking, and I loved the way it focuses on the simple act of battling an ever-moving stream of aliens to create tension and a sense that every battle has clear stakes.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is not the greatest game that Obsidian could have created, but it is so faithful to the universe on which it is based that any fan will be delighted to experience the new stories, the new gags, the new take on familiar characters, and the impressive way in which the quiet mountain town is brought to virtual life.
I liked the time spent with 10 Second Ninja, although I wish it would just a little bit less punishing.
The game is very interesting and can be extremely fun for those players who have a knack for quickly determining paths through levels and then quickly using the arsenal of moves provided to get to the finish point.
Age of Wonders III is a perfect representative of the 4X genre and all those who love strategy and fantasy should get it immediately and prepare to spend tends of hours exploring its varied world and creating clever strategies that can crumble when the enemy joins the fight.
Until then, Kinect Sports Rivals will remain an interesting experiment that never manages to live up to the expectations linked to it.
A player can be defeated quickly, especially when using a higher difficulty setting and seeding the map with more monsters, and there's a feeling of challenge that other similar titles fail to deliver.
The Last Federation is like a miniature jewel, a game that seems easy to understand and play at first and, as the player engages with it more, reveals deeper nuances and more interesting mechanics to explore and exploit.
The continued popularity of the Tropico series has something to do with the relative lack of old-school city and country management games on the market and the inability of the teams at Maxis and Electronic Arts to re-launch SimCity in any meaningful way.
War, the Game is one of the most interesting titles I have played this year and one of the video games that, even if that was not the intention of the team at Gabber Games, deliver some interesting commentary on the nature of war in the modern age.
Men of War – Assault Squad 2 is a great entry point to the series for those who have not played it before and also makes a solid addition to the collections of all longtime fans as long as they have even the faintest interest in playing with other humans rather than only the Artificial Intelligence.
Company of Heroes 2 – The Western Front Armies is a solid expansion package for a very good strategy experience and offers enough new content to justify the purchase price.
Xenonauts is a good game, designed specifically to appeal to the group of gamers who have solid memories of the classic X-Com experience and want to play something that's familiar and slightly different at the same time.
The game will clearly appeal more to casual gamers than to the hardcore, but it does show how the Wii U can deliver interesting games when the developers try to introduce some innovation.