EGM's Reviews
With the game finally completed and released to the world after nine long years, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories marks the return of Granzella's cult classic series about surviving natural disasters. This time around, the team has traded action set pieces in for a more personal look at the human toll of horrific events—but they've done so without injecting enough humanity into that new direction to make it truly work.
If not for its uninspired design and lack of effort in the storytelling, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows might have actually been a good game. Oddly for a fighting game, it focuses almost entirely on its single-player, often to its detriment. But if you can look past the repetitive structure and the uneven pacing, there's actually some fun combat to be found, and its multiplayer meta is surprisingly addictive.
Concrete Genie's painting tech impresses at first and its heart is certainly in the right place, but the game ultimately proves too aimless to support its already brief running time. Adorning the city in landscapes of your own creation quickly loses its luster as you realize that what you create lacks meaningful interactivity. Even the jarring addition of combat midway through doesn't do much to counter the sense that Pixelopus couldn't find a way to build out a full game around a simple gameplay idea.
Looting for better gear is a trend that's taken over gaming, but it's never seemed as unnecessary and as cynical as it does in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Turning the game into an amalgamation of Wildlands and The Division, Breakpoint's gear system ruins any immersion you may have felt in pretending to be an elite spec ops soldier. If that was the game's only issue, it might have still been salvageable, but its predictable story, graphical infidelity, and obnoxious open world make this a failed experiment at marrying two or three different properties from the same publisher.
All MachineGames and Arkane Studios needed to do was make a straightforward, cooperative Wolfenstein experience. Instead, Youngblood replaces the series' celebrated narrative twists and turns with humdrum XP grinding and a live-service model. It would be bad in most games, but the fact that it's in a Wolfenstein title makes it sting a little bit worse.
Lucky is unrealized potential. There is always space for a new kid-friendly platformer, and Lucky's cute and colorful world could've served as a great entry point for a new franchise. Sadly, poor controls, a terrible camera, and just overall lackluster gameplay leave Super Lucky's Tale being a subpar effort not worthy of your time.
Need for Speed Payback might be a new low point for the franchise. A horrendous progression system compounded by uninteresting characters and terrible AI only illustrates how far behind this series has fallen compared to the other arcade racers out there. The multiplayer is solid, but that's like saying at least the car wreck didn't cause a fire, too.
A stellar atmosphere is not enough to save such a puzzle-platformer that completely lacks any sort of challenge. While the story of Six is a sad one, it's not for the fact that her adventure begins in a cage—but that the developer failed to find a way to make me care about it at all.
A heavy dose of randomness coupled with a lack of permanent progression makes Has-Been Heroes a chore to keep playing. Though there's a good strategy idea buried in its multi-lane gameplay, the high-risk, no-reward setup isn't satisfying enough to make up for its otherwise mediocre aspects. Coupled with repetitive enemies, forgettable assets, and bizarre controls, Has-Been Heroes is a game that can go right back into retirement.
HAL Laboratory fails to innovate at all within the puzzle genre and throws many of the same obstacles at you over and over again—to the point where BoxBoy! is as plain a platformer as its monochromatic motif.
I love difficult games, but The Flame in the Flood didn't test my resolve—it tested my patience. A stellar look and an awesome soundtrack made me want to love The Molasses Flood's first release, but with so many technical setbacks, I could hardly even stomach my time with it. I won't be returning to the flood.
Horrid visuals and unintuitive gameplay make Rodea the Sky Soldier one of the worst action games I've played in a long time.
There was potential here, but it is lost in a sea of technical issues that are nearly impossible to look past.
Instead of making a case as to why you need a Kinect, Kinect Sports Rivals shows that the peripheral—and most games revolving around it—still have a long way to come.
Contrast offers one of the most interesting gameplay gimmicks in recent memory, but the lack of engaging puzzles and interesting levels prevent the concept from being put to good use.
Knack, while conceptually interesting, never rises above being an OK platformer without any real positive memorable aspects, but plenty of frustrating ones. If you've ever wondered what a tech demo turned into a full-fledged game would be like, Knack is—or very much feels—like that.
NBA Live has had a tough time escaping the shadow of NBA 2K—and that trend continues with NBA Live 15, which doesn't deliver believable player movement, shooting, or gameplay flow. The "Big Moments" mode shows the potential that the series might be able to execute in the coming years, but right now, it's like a .500 team trying to compete with a playoff juggernaut.
The Order: 1886 is a paper-thin PS4 launch title delivered 15 months behind schedule. It's nowhere near as profound or innovative as it thinks it is—the epitome of all style and no substance.
While there's plenty to love about the original Secret of Mana, this remake manages to kill off most the game's charm while failing to modernize the parts of the game that actually need updating. Awkward animations, impenetrable menus, slow combat, and repeated random crashes add up to a game that, with 25 years of technological improvements under its belt, may actually be worse than the original.
EA Sports UFC 3 feels like one step forward and two steps back. Striking is more realistic than ever, but submissions and the ground game remain convoluted. The new G.O.A.T. Career mode has flashes of brilliance, but bogs you down in menus while losing the human side of fights. As well, Ultimate Team just feels like yet another cash grab. There is a decent core in UFC 3, but it needs a lot more time in the gym to become champion material.