Tom Marks's Reviews
I’m enjoying Godfall, even if it’s not doing much to wow me and the repetition of its missions is wearing a bit thin. It’s got some fun and satisfying combat, a few genuinely novel mechanics, and graphics that range from absolutely gorgeous to a little over the top – but unless its thin story morphs into more than an excuse to go stab stuff, the grindable action-looter structure doesn't seem like it has enough variety to sustain its otherwise expansive customization.
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for Balance is a mess, with clunky combat, way too many pointless puzzles, and baffling choices for which scenes from the series to highlight.
All the charm in the universe couldn't save Balan Wonderworld's half-baked platforming and ill-advised one-button design from being a complete bore.
Mighty No. 9's dash mechanic is a lot of fun, but bad art, imprecise hitboxes, and awful level design make the experience extremely frustrating.
Forspoken’s flashy combat and parkour can be fun, but they aren’t enough to make its cliche story and barebones open world very interesting to explore.
Marvel's Avengers' campaign is fun and endearing, but the loot-based post-game meant to be the meat of this meal is unrewarding and overly repetitive.
The best fan experience for the series by far, but cut corners and poor design choices bog down an otherwise fun beat-em up.
Fe is a short-lived platformer that still manages to outstay its welcome in some regards. Its platforming is okay but unimaginative, and its best ideas, like the tree jumping and singing affecting the world, remain underused. It can be a beautiful game at times, especially with regards to its music and audio design, but not so much so that it hides its rougher edges and undeveloped concepts.
Defector is fun, but shallow mechanics and a brief, jumbled story keep it from being the appealing spy game it starts out as.
A decent revival of the N64-era 3D platformer, but with all the flaws that carries, as well as some new ones of its own.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is an enjoyable expansion full of cool new monsters but not many new ideas.
Far: Changing Tides lacks some of what made its predecessor truly special, but it's still another lovely roadtrip to take.
The Gunk is a simple little platforming adventure full of malicious messes that are plenty fun to clean up.
WarioWare: Get It Together!'s multiplayer modes are a bit of a letdown, but chasing high scores is still a lot of wacky fun.
Maquette is an incredibly clever and absolutely gorgeous first-person puzzle game, even if it doesn’t really push the boundaries of its own recursive concept in any particularly surprising ways. That left me feeling like its straightforward story and puzzles were a missed opportunity to do something more, but playing through Maquette’s brief adventure was at least a lovely, mind-tickling evening well spent.
Tony Stark's story may not be very interesting, but flying around as his alter ego in Marvel's Iron Man VR is still a lot of fun.
XCOM: Chimera Squad plays with some interesting new ideas, but doesn't bring them together into a particularly graceful whole.
The Room VR: A Dark Matter offers an enjoyable and impressively polished VR puzzler while it lasts.
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.
Chasm is a lovely and fun Metroidvania with a lot of cool new ideas, even if its randomized maps are uninteresting.