Tom Marks
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Fez
- Skies of Arcadia: Legends
Tom Marks's Reviews
Warhammer Vermintide 2 is a beautifully dark game, and I'm in love with its hard-hitting, meaty melee weapons. It's a gorgeous game with tons of fun play styles and customization options to uncover, even if most of the loot you earn for your efforts is a letdown. But thankfully you don't need to pay much attention to it to simply enjoy the hack-n-slash, Left 4 Dead-inspired co-op fun of bashing hordes of rats and zombies to a pulp.
BattleTech provides exciting strategic decisions and a compelling story, plus the slow-paced and meticulous fun of building up and customizing a mercenary company but suffers from the frustrating unpredictability of its weapons and procedural missions, and losing a favorite mechwarrior to a random head hit feels like it somewhat undermines the choices I've made along the way. Those frustrating moments didn't ruin my many hours with BattleTech by any means, but they did mean I wasn't rushing back for more after I beat the campaign.
Yoku's Island Express is a novel Metroidvania-pinball hybrid that stands out as something wholly unique. It blends those clashing genres with a beautiful island style, and its satisfying flippers and bumpers make uncovering its wide island a ton of fun. Retreading completed areas while hunting for secrets can occasionally get stale, but Yoku's Island Express has a refreshingly positive attitude that kept me smiling the whole way through.
Hollow Knight’s rich world and incredible depth of content will make you want to explore its caves for dozens of hours.
Chasm is a lovely and fun Metroidvania with a lot of cool new ideas, even if its randomized maps are uninteresting.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the sequel I've been waiting for, returning to the roots of what made the first game so special. It adds a handful of new and interesting mechanics to its tactical battles, nearly all of which improve the formula in tangible ways, but otherwise plays it fairly safe. The story can feel a little bit impersonal and disconnected from the rest of the series, but the way it makes even the smallest characters important and alive is remarkable. It's great to see the Valkyria Chronicles series back on track, as it's still one-of-a-kind.
Return of the Obra Dinn stands as something wholly unique, a challenging detective game that empowers you to solve its mysteries through actual investigation.
Warframe isn't an easily approachable game, but it's one that's worth getting comfortable with.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Smash Bros. done right, and done bigger than ever before.
Artifact is a challenging, deep, and surprisingly approachable card game.
Wargroove's brain-teasing tactics and impressive level editor make it the Advance Wars successor fans have been waiting for.
Slay the Spire takes some of the best parts of deckbuilding games, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers, and mixes them into a wholly new and extremely satisfying package.
Trials Rising has an impressive new tutorial, even more extensive customization, and an awesome pool of levels that can be disappointingly discouraging to unlock.
Yoshi's Crafted World is a very fun platformer that's light on challenge or ambition, but brimming with creativity and charm.
SteamWorld Quest's card-based RPG combat offers an insane amount of choice, making it as flexible as it is fun.
Trover Saves the Universe is a short and sweet VR platformer wrapped in one of the most ridiculous and funny video game stories you'll ever see.
Defector is fun, but shallow mechanics and a brief, jumbled story keep it from being the appealing spy game it starts out as.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is a fun, if fairly simple, comic book beat-em-up that's enjoyable alone or with friends alike.
Far: Lone Sails is a gorgeous little game with an incredible soundtrack and a journey packed full of both stressful and serene moments alike.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne adds loads of impressive monsters and tons of quality-of-life improvements to an already incredible game.