Cosmin Vasile
Of Bird and Cage is not a good game and I can only think of a small subset of people who might enjoy it: fans of progressive rock with a love of soapy narrative drive titles and an ability to ignore presentation issues. Anyone else should avoid playing the game, even if it is relatively short at around two hours.
Having fixed most of the technical and visual bugs that plagued the initial release, Poker Club cannot overcome the issues that haunt all the poker simulators. The unpredictability of the human element brings tediousness and a slow pace, without being able to replicate the thrills of playing face to face with another human being.
Given that it is very hard to eliminate features from a released game I hope that Larkon has learned a valuable lesson and will deliver a better game using similar core ideas in the future. A new take on the strategic elements of Might & Magic with some innovations for the combat could reach a large number of players.
The story does little to appeal, although the setting has some potential. The presentation is bad. The city is filled with tropes and no surprises. The development team has a good grasp on mechanics and that will keep die-hard fans of the genre playing for a while. But to reach a wider audience they need to improve all other areas of a future release because Black Legend seems impossible to redeem.
It is only a small improvement compared to the first Monster Jam Steel Titans and even with a more modest price tag and online multiplayer, it is hard to recommend for someone. Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 is way too arcade for the fans of the sport and offers very little to anyone else.
If you are a point and click adventure fan going through a dry spell, it may be worth picking up Chains of Satinav to fill a winter weekend, when you would just rather stay inside. If you just discover this videogame genre there are far better options out there to immerse yourself in.
The lack of human players to battle online is an even bigger issue. The game needed to have cross-platform play between most if not all its launch platforms to maintain a community. It might also have been better to launch the game as free-to-play with a smaller roster and to then deliver paid extra options, once a group of players became fans. Maybe a future title in the series can focus on creating a community first, to make the mech fighting concept the successful brawler it can be.
Fans of the concept will appreciate the unyielding difficulty and the lack of ways to tweak it. But given the changes to the mechanics, it would be nice to see Team Meat make their new title easier to appreciate with less frustration.
The bugs can be corrected, even though the patches seem to not really deal with them. But the main problem is the peculiar concept choices, the serious lack of variety, and the feeling that you are investing time and effort in a free-to-play game still in development. As such, I cannot recommend Torchlight III, not even to long-time fans of the series.
Still, the state of the game at launch remains inexcusable, and even after several patches, some major issues continue to plague the game's complex mechanics. If you have picked up Little Big Workshop right after release and got turned down by the technical issues, then wait for a few more patches and give it another chance. If you're considering the game, wait for a discount since Little Big Workshop might be fixed by then.
The multiplayer part was only working in local mode, the online playground being a no man's land.You could still try to overlook the shortcoming, by saying that the game is targeting mainly the younger audiences. This statement is contradicted though by the advanced difficulty levels with an AI that does not get smarter, only more aggressive, taking advantage of the conditions feels rigged against the player. Although a better effort, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix is still far from the finish line it wants to conquer.
Instead, you are presented with jumps that require ultimate precision and obstacles with errors in collision detection which force you to adopt a slow and careful approach. With more attention to details and some more polishing Skully could have been an entertaining experience. Unfortunately, it just proves to be a modest attempt to make a cute platformer.
Unfortunately, the console version paints a different picture: the game's charm and strengths are overshadowed by the poor technical execution. The release of a patch that just makes things worse can be an oversight, but it is still a severe one that further damages the experience. If you are looking for an RPG that dares to implement change and has a novel approach to the genre, Tower of Time has lots of potentials, but wait until all the issues are fixed.
Unfortunately, the countless technical issues, the lack of quality content, the clumsy controls and stupid AI turn Maneater into a mediocre experience, which cannot be recommended in its current state.
Unfortunately, taking into account the length of the game, and the lack of any replayability even the low price is too much for this indie game. Maybe an online coop would have justified it, but as it is A Fold Apart is a tremendous creative exercise, but way too short to offer a lasting experience.
We were hoping to find in Dread Nautical an uncut gem. In the end, we received a game that does not live up its potential and becomes monotonous pretty quickly. The lack of variety and depth turn this interesting concept into a mediocre game. The mix of RPG and tactics although well thought out, shortly turn into a routine without any joy. There is no thrill or scare, but plenty of annoying moments generated by the chores of item management. Dread Nautical wanted to be a place of madness, but it turned into another dimension of boredom.
Long story short, Forged of Blood is the best example of a project which was meant to be big but ended up being small. I wouldn't have been so disappointed if it was a "good" small rather a than "bad" small.
Unfortunately, I can't recommend Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey to anyone who wants to play a solid adventure game, but it's definitely worth getting when it's on sale.
Perhaps if the next games were to head to a completely different directions, I would try another Seven Deadly Sins game, but until then, I can't recommend it to anyone who's already seen the anime series.
Seeing how Bungie approached the Destiny 2 expansion matter, I have low expectations from the next DLC that should arrive in the coming months and you should too.