HIGH  Greatly improved on-the-field presentation. Added features for Franchise mode

LOW Still suffers from wonky AI and bugs.

WTF Why did my center line up as a receiver?

The Axis Football franchise has had its share of ups and downs over the past few years.

2023’s incarnation was a standout featuring a new physics engine and gameplay tweaks that led to its highest score ever at GameCritics. Major setbacks plagued the 2024 campaign, including rubber-banding AI, graphical glitches, and inaccurate, repetitive commentary. After forgoing the 2025 season (a rebuilding year, if you will) wholesale changes were made to every aspect of the experience, and now Axis Football returns for 2026. 

On the field, players look even better than ever, with more detailed models including wrinkles on jerseys.  The new stadiums are lovely, giving the feeling of a real home team advantage, including new crowd chants and fans decked out in team colors. 

New animations make it much easier to see holes in a defensive line for a running back to slip through, or why a pass was broken up by a wily safety.  There are still times when it appears that a blocker can almost teleport to make a play on a ballcarrier, but the new instant replay mode often shows players behaving realistically, greatly enhancing the experience. 

New commentary has been recorded, including team-specific lines when scoring and so on.  It can still get repetitive, especially after playing a large number of games, but the new dialogue was certainly welcome.  Play calling has also been enhanced with a new create-a-play feature in case the current team playbook is too limiting.

Off the field, Axis Football 2026 still has one of the deepest franchise modes in videogame football, and as before, the player has complete control over the organization.  With a few button clicks, I can hire and fire coaches, scout future potential draft picks, and purchase upgrades for my stadium, such as luxury boxes and fitness and rehabilitation gear for my players. 

These things are key, as Axis Football makes players work to improve their teams, and the salary cap is no joke.  I often had to think long and hard about signing a stud free agent or saving the cap space for the offseason when I had to re-sign my core team.  Moments like this are exhilarating, and when I finally led my squad to the Axis Bowl Championship, I felt like I earned it with my shrewd decision-making. 

While the new modes, character models, animations, stadiums, create-a-play, and improved play-by-play are as impressive as an off-balance, one-handed grab in the end zone, Axis Football 2026 still has its share of problems that negate forward progress. 

As of the time of writing, the visuals are locked at a resolution of 1920 x 1080, even if a monitor is capable of much higher settings.  A controller and mouse tend to cancel each other out when manipulating menus, which is especially frustrating when trying to navigate settings or interact with the UI outside of on-the-field gameplay, such as accepting trades or drafting players.  Additionally, setting up a team’s 53-man roster can be more difficult than it should be — the option to place the best players on the field at all positions automatically should be included. 

On the field, the AI still struggles with basic concepts.  I’ve watched special teams’ players streak right past the return man straight into the endzone on kickoffs, allowing the ballcarrier to gain far more yards than should have been possible.  In one particularly bizarre scenario, I had a center line up as a receiver on multiple plays during a drive, eliminating a checkdown option for my QB. 

I’m also still not able to tell if the dreaded catchup AI from the 2024 campaign has returned — suspicions were raised when I noticed opposing teams coming back from serious deficits, even when my Philadelphia Express significantly outmatched them.  Since building my team of stars took six seasons’ worth of heartbreak and failure, it’s frustrating to win against obvious chumps, when I should have steamrolled them. 

The simulation mode has issues as well.  While losing one game by a point with seconds left on the clock, I ended manual play and allowed the computer to simulate the final moments.  Somehow, I wound up winning that game even though there was no possible way to do so.  (It was also snowing in Miami during that game in early October…)

While not quite matching its previous heights, Axis Football 2026 has made marked improvements over the last incarnation and shows that it’s still a title worthy of taking the field.  With the right bug fixes and continued improvement, it could once again become a solid contender in the increasingly-crowded football market.  Axis Football 2026 is worth the time and the price of admission, but there’s definitely room for this franchise to tighten things up.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Axis Games. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S/PS4/PS5/PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 11 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and multiple seasons were completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. The game is a realistic simulation of American Football.  Players are tackled and knocked to the ground, or may be pushed/shoved to the ground by blockers or a stiff-arm.  Injuries to players are briefly described in text form (such as Player X sustained a leg injury) and whether or not they will return to play.  There are no visual depictions of injuries.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. The game is playable without sound, as there are visual representations of all in-game activities.  However, there are no subtitles for any commentary or player chatter (snap counts, etc.).  While the game does provide a quick summary of the previous play (tackle for loss, rushing gain of 17 yards and so on) so much of the experience is lost.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The post Axis Football 2026 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great atmosphere, engaging story. Memorable companions.

LOW Frequent bugs and glitches. Crashes to desktop. Basic features don’t work.

WTF My Druid has a dinosaur as an animal companion!

In 2003, I was looking for a Dungeons and Dragons experience for my PC. 

I was interested in trying something like World of Warcraft, but hesitant about the subscription model and didn’t want to turn it into a part-time job.  I discovered Neverwinter Nights, determined it was exactly what I was looking for, and then happily spent dozens of hours playing through its campaign and the user-made modules. 

It’s fair to say I’ve always been a fan of the series, and I own multiple copies of both titles.  As such, I was overjoyed to review the latest remaster from Aspyr, Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition to see how this seminal role-playing experience held up in 2025…  Spoiler: not well.

Near the city of Neverwinter on the Sword Coast of Faerun, evil forces have conquered and despoiled the lands.  As the adopted child of an adventurer in a backwater town, the player learns of their role as the Shard-Bearer — possessor of an artifact the Shadow King requires to complete his dastardly agenda.  Setting forth alone, the player must gather allies to thwart the Shadow King.  Will the Shard-Bearer be a savior, or a more powerful evil to blight the land?  Only the player can decide..

Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is an isometric, third-person role-playing game where the player selects or creates a character from one of the many races and classes available, ranging from a Half-Elven Rogue to a Dwarven Cleric of Tyr.  The player directly controls the character’s movement and then uses a hybrid menu system for combat where battles are strategic and turn-based. 

For instance, the player may click on a target or select one using the Enhanced Edition‘s newly implemented controller inputs to select the next action which will take place on the next turn.  There’s also a pause feature which allows more refined control over the character (or party) where the player can select several turns’ worth of actions to take place sequentially. 

Outside of combat, the player faces a multitude of dialogue choices, both large (should I aid the village in its time of need?) and small (should I demand a few more gold as a reward for my actions?).  There is no right or wrong answer, only what feels appropriate to the player.  It’s important to note that all choices feel important and have a lasting effect on the party members and any other characters the player meets along the way. 

Speaking of which, a cast of memorable faces are ready to travel with the player — some favorties included a Dwarven Fighter looking to become a monk, a Tiefling who steals whatever isn’t nailed down, and a cranky human sorceress with an inflated ego — but also with the fireballs to back it up. 

Party member interactions are a highlight of Neverwinter Nights 2, and learning more about them by gaining their confidence is always a treat.  Characters gain experience via combat and exploration, and can readily purchase or craft gear.  Progression is steady, and it’s generally easy to earn the coin needed for upgrades. 

While things get off to a roaring start and this version has a great base to work from, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition squanders the goodwill its writing and mechanics earn almost immediately. 

While the improved graphics make character models sharper and slightly more detailed, they still look tremendously dated. Worse, bugs are glitches are rampant.  Ten minutes after starting the game, my character got stuck in place and I had to try numerous fixes to continue on my way. Hardly an isolated occurrence, this ‘stickiness’ happens frequently during exploration and required me to quickly select a new character or click on a faraway destination to remedy. 

During combat, my character frequently teleported outside of any room I was in.  Also during combat, clicking an action doesn’t always work, even if the appropriate icon appears in the combat menu. 

Also, players need to spend a good deal of time micro-managing their party to get them to behave usefully in battle — dysfunctional behaviors like running around in circles, refusing to follow the main character into a room, or launching spells from nowhere near a fight. Even basic things like sound effects don’t work properly.  The clash of steel against armor or shield is notably missing from all battles, and I also suffered several crashes to desktop, causing me to repeat lengthy sections.

I will give the save system specifically a mixed review.  Neverwinter Nights 2 allows me to save whenever and wherever I want, which longtime readers will know is something I harp on constantly — so I approve.  However, when trying to load a saved game, I’m asked if I want to save first.  The first time this happened, I had just suffered a total party kill, requiring me to load an earlier save.  Not paying attention, I accidentally saved this graceless defeat over my good save I was trying to get back into! Why on earth would anyone want to save right after they’d been killed? 

Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition could have been something truly special to share with modern-day players.  This classic does a great job of worldbuilding and gives a player true stakes, a sense of progression, and a realistic party of companions to interact with. Sadly, the rife bugs and glitches along with a general sense of being unfinished make it impossible to recommend, especially as there seem to be no patches incoming. 

It’s tremendously disappointing, and hopefully either Aspyr can do something about it in the future, or ardent fans will come to rescue and save this title from a fate worse than death.

Rating: 3.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Aspyr Media. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5, Switch, Switch 2, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 24 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. While there are multiplayer modes which offer features such as the ability to turn PVP on and off, I was not able to join any sessions. Player sessions are password protected, and I did not know anyone currently playing the game.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence. The official description reads: This is a role-playing game in which players can create characters to engage in popular D&D campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms. From a third-person perspective, players explore fantasy locations while interacting with characters, performing quests/missions, and battling enemies. Players use swords, arrows, and magic spells to kill various enemies (e.g., ogres, bandits, animals, elves, dwarves). Combat is highlighted by cries of pain, small explosions, and large splatters of blood. A handful of walls/floors are also stained with blood. Female characters are sometimes depicted wearing low-cut tops that reveal large amounts of cleavage; players can develop relationships with others, sometimes resulting in suggestive dialogue (e.g., “I thought perhaps we could get some sleep. Together”; “I have no intention of letting you sleep.”). Tavern sequences depict drunk characters slurring and hiccupping; background characters also drink alcohol. Players’ character can consume ale, wine, and spirits, resulting in status/skill effects. The word “bastard” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All gameplay critical sound effects have a visual component.  However, characters casting spells, attacking, or making non-gameplay critical utterances do not have accompanying subtitles.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Varied player-controlled craft. Fast action. MISSILES EVERYWHERE!

LOW Missing characters. Repetitive sound effects.

WTF Why are all these collectibles just floating in space inside capsules?

Like many of those from a certain generation, I cut my teeth watching Robotech, and I thought it was basically the greatest thing ever.  As I grew older, I discovered that while it was a good anime, it was Macross that was spoken of in hushed tones, as the “real” version of the stories I’d come to love.  I’ve never gotten to watch that hallowed series, so I jumped at the chance to play the first Macross-based game to receive a full US release, Macross — Shooting Insight.  Finally, a chance to immerse myself in this more mature… wait — did that dude just say they need to rescue Sara from the “Bird-Human?” 

OK, so maybe it doesn’t have the most coherent story.  Apparently ripples in space-time brought together pilots from across the Macross saga to rescue kidnapped singers from an evil corporation also ripped from its original time who want to use their voices to power some kind of doomsday machine… and there was something about space whales?  Whatever — I get to fly Valkyrie transformable fighter jets (Veritechs for us Robotech fans) and blow lots of stuff up!

At its core, Macross — Shooting Insight is a typical arcade-style shoot ‘em up, albeit with a few cool tricks up its sleeve. 

Things start as a top-down shooter, allowing prospective pilots to fire towards the top of the screen at wave after wave of enemies who are raining fire down upon them.  The player can move in all directions to evade, and have the ability to dodge button for a split-second if invulnerability when incoming flak is impossible to evade any other way. 

Players have two weapons at their disposal to fight off the evil hordes — lasers and missiles.  The laser fires in a pre-programmed direction that varies based on the type of fighter being flown.  Each playable character has a distinctive ship with a set fire pattern ranging from straight ahead, to a Contra-esque spread gun.  Missiles require a lock, which means the player holds a button and moves the ship to lock on to targets, releasing the button to fire.  This is generally riskier due to the delay, but missiles are more maneuverable, do more damage, and grant higher score multipliers.

Macross tries to differentiate itself from other shooters by varying gameplay perspective.  Along with the top-down sections, there are also side scrolling levels, three-quarter perspective levels where the playfield scrolls with the player’s movement to granting a sort-of open world feel, and third-person behind-the-ship levels.  At the end of every stage is a boss battle against an enormous screen-filling monstrosity.  Between missions, static cutscenes play where various characters interact, usually talking about how weird it is to have time-traveled or showing wonder at meeting classic heroes such as Roy Fokker. 

Overall, Macross is colorful, there’s constant action, and the play varies enough to keep interest.  There are various floating collectibles in space that unlock gallery items referencing years of Macross lore that was unfamiliar to me, and the soundtrack plays an important part in gameplay — by destroying signal jammers on each stage, the missing songstresses are able to sing to pilots, granting boons such as increased missile damage or greater speed.  The songs are a real treat, and provide a tangible reason to try and unlock them in the heat of battle. 

As it’s a shooter, difficulty must be part of the conversation, and Macross — Shooting Insight is DIFFICULT on the default settings. Based on the amount of incoming fire and the damage done to the player, the normal mode here feels more like something comparable to Hard or Insane mode in another titles.  iThe devs make up for this by being generous with enhancement settings like auto-refill of the health meter when one doesn’t take damage for a few moments, or the option to reduce incoming fire.  These enhancements come at the cost of preventing players from placing their high scores on global leaderboards, but the achievements still unlock, and full endings are granted on any setting.

In terms of criticisms, my issues center around quality-of-life issues.  For instance, every pilot yells the same phrase EVERY TIME THEY FIRE MISSILES.  After a few minutes, I found myself playing more and more of the game on mute due to the incessant repetition. 

During missions, pilots are generally chatty even when not firing missiles, and have long conversations with just about everyone.  All of this dialogue appears at the bottom of the screen, but it’s impossible to read and follow along while fighting for dear life, dodging bullet-hell patterns of fire.  If one is able to follow it during play, the result is that the story mode is cute, but doesn’t offer a satisfying narrative or compelling endings (one for each pilot).  It’s mostly fanservice, which is fine, if a little lightweight.

However, my biggest issue with Macross is that the Japanese release of Macross — Shooting Insight allows players to use Hikaru Ichijo (Rick Hunter in the US) and his Valkyrie and features Linn Minmay and Misa Hayase as supporting characters.  Due to licensing issues, these characters and Rick’s iconic ship are not available to US gamers.  While the additional storyline probably wasn’t going to be groundbreaking, excising these key characters from the roster just seems wrong.

The M in Macross – Shooting Insight is not supposed to stand for “missed opportunity,” but sadly, that’s where this title has landed. Fans of the original IP deserve a better representation of the characters, music, and action of the series, and newcomers should be welcomed into the fold by the best the genre and the creative team have to offer. Despite some eye-catching visuals and a fantastic soundtrack, this is not a game I can recommend at its current price without some major overhauls.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Buy MACROSS — Shooting Insight – PC – PS – SW

Disclosures: This game is developed by Kaminari Games and published by Red Art Games. It is currently available on PS45, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence, Language. The official description reads: “This is an arcade-style shooter in which players assume the roles of mecha pilots rescuing songstresses and attempting to return to their respective time periods. From both overhead and side-scrolling perspectives, players traverse space and defeat various enemies (e.g., jammers, unmanned ships, mecha pilots). Players use lasers and missiles to defeat enemies; boss battles contain more protracted combat. Combat can be fast-paced at times, accompanied by laser fire, light effects, and explosions. The word “sh*t” appears in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All storyline dialogue is in subtitle form, but much of the text runs while gameplay is occurring, meaning that it will be hard to follow while avoiding incoming fire. All gameplay audio cues are represented visually.  Flavor dialogue (pilots calling out missile launches, occasional chatter) is not subtitled.   

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable.  Movement is locked to the control sticks, but all input buttons can be remapped.

The post MACROSS: Shooting Insight Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Addictive gameplay loop, fast action, slick controls.

LOW Backtracking. Some major gameplay elements need better explanations.

WTF If I time travel, shouldn’t my tech be shockingly over/underpowered based on where I go?

Is there anything less satisfying than defeating an enormous mob or particularly fearsome boss, only to see a bunch of trash scatter out from the death throes, instead of the lovely loot one was expecting? What if there were a game that understood the plight of players plagued by terrible loot and allowed players to say “No thank you, I’d prefer something else.”  What if it also allowed players to alter enemies on the fly or rewrite dialogue, allowing the narrative to progress in a different direction? 

Dream no more, fellow gamers, for it now exists in the form of the new space flight ARPG/SHMUP called Reality Break.

The game tells the story of an unsuccessful mercenary pilot escaping from raiders by the skin of their teeth.  With their ship damaged and funds at a minimum, our hero limps to a local starbase where a friend awaits with an offer to snag a piece of ancient technology from a mysterious region. 

After acquiring the “Fate Core”, the player gains the ability to reconfigure reality, adding boosts and upgrades to equipment, as well as changing events at key points. Luckily, our hero won’t have to go it alone.  Friendly scientists and starbase commanders aid the journey by offering missions and technology, snarky ship-based AI provides intel on enemies, and there’s a voice in the player’s head giving cryptic advice about the fate of the universe…

Reality Break is a fast-paced action roleplayer/loot collection roguelike. The gameplay loop is simple, but addicting and effective. 

The player begins by warping to a mission area, exploring that portion of the galaxy from a top-down perspective, destroying enemies, completing objectives, and finding a ludicrous amount of loot along the way, which allows for new and powerful weapons to destroy tougher enemies, which then completes more objectives, which earns more loot, and so on. 

Between sorties, the player returns to a hub area to buy and sell items, purchase upgrades (things like equipping drones or repairing damage more quickly) and learn more about the Fate Core — Reality Break‘s biggest hook.

For example, let’s say I found an item that was too large to fit on my ship’s frame but does a staggering amount of damage.  I could use the Fate Core to rewrite the item, making it small enough to fit my ship.  Or, say I encountered an unbeatable enemy during a story mission.  I could rewrite enemy dialogue, allowing me to skip the battle (at least, for the time being.) It’s a tricky thing to understand at first — and frankly, the tutorials could explain things better — but after a few missions, it becomes second nature. 

It doesn’t stop there, though — Reality Break offers even more customization. Using the Fate Core allows players to change the difficulty of play, as well as the amount and rarity of loot that can be obtained. 

At certain points in the narrative, the player completely breaks from the timeline and gains access to “Reality Points” which are spent on permanent upgrades that bend things even further, although in order to maximize the effect, the player might have to end their current run and being a new one with the changes in place — it is a roguelike, after all. On the plus side, Reality Break lets players skip all previous dialogue and gets to the good stuff faster on later runs, but those not used to this kind of structure may find it offputting.  

Otherwise, the controls in Reality Break are tight and the ship is incredibly responsive, there’s a ton of stuff to blow up at any time, and there’s loads of post-game content, including the ability to unlock the “proper” ending which will take… some time. 

Reality Break is simply a blast to play and fight/loot/repeat loop is incredibly satisfying, wheter it’s the first run or the fifth. For fans of roguelikes, shoot’em ups or original ideas, this is one break definitely worth taking.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Reality Break: PC

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Element Games, LLC. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 18 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB.  The game features simulated ship-to-ship combat in space.  There are instances of humans implicitly being killed in the aftermath of an explosion, but no explicit violence takes place.  The word S### is used sparingly in dialog (I saw it once).  I’d be fine letting kids play this.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized.  All audio cues have an accompanying visual cue.  Some enemies spawn with a distinctive sound and begin attacking immediately.  The visual cue for this is perhaps a split second after the sound, but there’s no notable effect on gameplay because of this.  While the subtitles cannot be altered, the game HUD can be moved and resized. I’d say this is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Reality Break Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stellar worldbuilding, story and voice acting.

LOW The gameplay has not aged well.

WTF Why are there so many block pushing puzzles?!?

25 years ago, a game was brought forth that felt so far ahead of its time, it was almost unbelievable. 

Serving as a spinoff and sequel to the incredibly dark isometric RPG Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the aptly named Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver introduced players to a new anti-hero named Raziel, as well as graphics in the third dimension and polygonal art. 

It also featured a deeply intelligent story about the nature of good and evil, personal choice, revenge, and sacrifice while also allowing players to explore an open world to face challenges as they chose. It was amazing. 

For those unfamiliar, Raziel is a vampire in thrall to Kain, the supreme vampire who destroyed the world in Blood Omen. By daring to surpass his lord in terms of vampiric evolution, Raziel raises Kain’s ire and is hurled into a pit to suffer eternal damnation.  Raziel is then saved by a mysterious force and given the ability to subsist on souls rather than blood, and charged with vanquishing Kain and all of his minions –a task he readily accepts. Throughout the journey, Raziel is forced to reckon with his own purpose, weighing what it means to be a reluctant savior. Sharp dialog and clever writing make this tale stand out in the annals of game writing.

For 25 years, Soul Reaver and its sequel Soul Reaver 2 have lain dormant.  Aspyr has now taken up the mantle to bring these classics back from the un-dead with gorgeous new character models, quality-of-life controller improvements, and access to previously-unreleased features.  Unfortunately, 25 years is an eternity in videogame terms, and despite being remastered, these originals have not aged well.

I want to start with the good, because there is a lot of good to be found. 

First, in the name of preservation efforts, it’s wonderful to have access to these titles again on modern systems.  Hearing Michael Bell voice Raziel after so long was a wonderful present to receive in these dark times. 

The new character models — especially for Raziel and his nemesis Kain — instill them with new life thanks to added details like the folds of Raziel’s cloak, or the scars on Kain’s body. It’s great stuff. 

The ability to flip back and forth between new and classic graphics with the press of a button is a nice feature, and I’m glad Aspyr took the time to include it. 

…If only playing the Soul Reaver titles were as mesmerizing as enjoying the upgrades and watching the story unfold. 

Raziel is handled from a third-person perspective as they explore the ruined land of Nosgoth.  Raziel can go back and forth between physical and spirit form at-will, and doing so changes the landscape around him — a trick that aids in navigation and puzzle solving.  For example, an unreachable ledge in the physical realm might warp and shift location to become accessible while Raziel is a spirit, and so forth.

Unfortunately, while this is still a solid idea, it’s quite rough by today’s standards. In one section I spent 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to climb the same structure, as Raziel needed to be in the exact right spot for the jump. The climb animation wouldn’t register otherwise, causing me to fall from a jump that I should have easily cleared, leading me to start the entire process over again. 

Frustrated, I quit only to find on my next playthrough that saving doesn’t start me exactly where I left off, but back at the beginning of the game.  Granted, I kept all the abilities I’d unlocked, but such design is almost like a bad joke these days. 

During a puzzle sequence I was required to move blocks from one location to another, but the game refused to accept the correct input to properly move the block.  I struggled with it for ages, eventually assumed I wasn’t pursuing wasn’t the correct solution, and then wasted even more time trying various other ways to solve the problem.  I finally gave up and watched a walkthrough only to see that I had the solution correct the first time, I was just slightly out of position and the right animation never triggered.  Feeling vindicated but annoyed, I pressed on and encountered several more finicky block puzzles in a row, followed by a puzzle that gave no clues as to its solution.

At this point, I had reached my limit with Soul Reaver and moved on to Soul Reaver 2.

Soul Reaver 2 is more combat-forward than its predecessor, with a greater number of weapons and animations, but Raziel’s power is so limited that it’s unsatisfying to play — combat lacks any weight as enemies barely react when struck. 

The ‘open’ world also causes irritation by having too many paths constantly gated.  Raziel often needs specific abilities such as phasing through solid objects or survival underwater to progress, so players are forced to progress on a linear path, but that path is presented in a nonlinear manner, leading to backtracking and frustration. 

To its credit, Soul Reaver 2 has a slightly better save system, but the lack of navigational aids still leads to so, so much backtracking and aimless searching for the correct way forward. 

Honestly, I’m glad The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered exists.  I know longtime fans will rejoice at playing on newer hardware and the story is still to be relished. I am truly hopeful that this reappearance will entice a new generation of fans and perhaps inspire the creation of a true finale for the series overall.  As for me, I’ll be content with my memories of playing these games new, as I find them too frustrating on multiple levels to genuinely embrace them today.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics and published by Aspyr.It is currently available on XBO/X, PS4/5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Violence. This is a collection of two adventure games in which players follow a banished vampire on a quest for vengeance against his former master. From a third-person perspective, players traverse a fantasy realm to battle vampires, evil spirits, and human vampire hunters. Players use claw strikes, swords, and spears to impale and decapitate enemies in frenetic combat. Enemies emit large splatters of blood when killed. A handful of areas depict impaled bodies and heads on spikes; one cutscene depicts a vampire hunter ripping out a character’s heart.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All dialogue is fully subtitled.  All audio cues have a visual marker as well.  The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great variety of playable characters with interesting abilities. Tense combat.

LOW Some poor AI. Hard to track some enemies. Lackluster ending.

WTF The big bad had relations with robots???

Legend tells of the Drifter — a spacecraft appearing to those in need, offering passage to a paradise known as the Homestead. The ship has decided to gather up an infamous gang known as the Wild Bastards, but why it wants them and the truth of where it’s going are a mystery. All the Bastards know know is the evil Jebdiah Chaste (hater of all things alien, robot, and criminal) is hot on their tails, looking to end them permanently.

Wild Bastards is an amalgamation of FPS and tactical roguelike play brought into existence by the same crew responsible for 2019’s Void Bastards. Players are tasked with traversing multiple star systems on the hunt for missing members of the Wild Bastards gang, of which there are 13 playable in total, each with unique abilities and playstyles. 

The basic gameplay loop is broken up into three distinct phases — a navigating-the-galaxy map portion, a turn-based tactics portion, and finally an FPS portion. While all the phases have randomized elements, the basic loop follows a consistent formula.

Things start on a galaxy map. As the player’s ship enters a new system, they must choose a path through a series of waypoints in a style similar to other roguelikes of the current era, evaluating each stop along the way for potential threats such as dangerous weather conditions or increased enemy damage. Each planet has a maximum number of characters who can beam down to the surface, forcing the player to strategically assemble their away team based on the characters’ abilities and possible synergies. accordingly.  Overuse of a particular character increases their exhaustion level, which nullifies certain abilities until they rest or are healed with beans (it makes sense in context.) 

Once on the surface, a turn-based tactical map opens.  As with similar isometric tactical titles, players direct their Bastards to locations where they may be able to find temporary upgrades such as increased damage or better armor, as well as permanent “Aces.” These act like a tech tree for permanent abilities or buffs.  Players are given a finite number of movement points each turn, and then enemy forces on the surface (representing Chaste’s bounty hunters) take their turn.

When the Bastards are forced to deal with enemies, combat ensues. and this is where the FPS portion of kicks in. Once combat starts, the only way to successfully complete an encounter is by finding and eliminating all enemies. A handy counter keeps tabs of the number of baddies hunting the gang, allowing players to know how badly outnumbered they are, or how close they are to winning a fight.

In FPS mode, players control one Bastard at a time, though they travel in pairs when they can.  It’s possible to swap between teammates at the push of a button, based on personal preference or on which character’s abilities work best in a given situation.  For instance, Hopalong (my favorite) has a lasso that freezes opponents while dealing DPS and an ability where he can freeze every enemy on the map for a short period. In contrast, Casino’s special ability instantly kills a random foe. 

Each Bastard also has distinctive movement rates, sneakiness levels (how easily they’ll be detected by enemies) and weapons such as Billy’s custom six-shooters, Judge’s sniper rifle, and Roswell’s “mason ray” — basically, their fancy name for a big, honkin’ laser cannon.  Learning the ins and outs of each character’s attacks and abilities takes some time, but makes combat encounters easier once mastered. 

If a combat encounter is successful, the team can continue exploring the planet.  However, there’s some risk/reward here — if a team stays too long, strong foes begin appearing.  Each one is increasingly difficult to defeat, and if the team keeps defying the odds, the final foe is literally indestructible. This mechanic means players wont be able to hoover up 100% of the loot and should wisely beam back to the ship at opportune moments rather than face these enemies. 

Adding to Wild Bastards‘ difficulty is that some characters might refuse to work with others while on a run. These fallings-out are random and might put a crimp in the player’s strategic plans. On the other hand, characters members may also become pals, which grants them additional boosts in battle — the Bastard known as Smoky will incinerating any enemy who damages his friend, as an example.

Overall, combat is fast and satisfying.  The weapons are a joy to use, and the array of abilities cater to any playstyle.  there are a few small hiccups with enemy AI, though. Once in a great while, the AI forgets to move an enemy around, leading to some incredibly easy kills and sometimes it’s difficult to locate the final enemy on a map, leading to some less than inspiring searching. However, the overall feeling of being both hunter and prey is exhilarating.   

In terms of narrative, Wild Bastards tells an interesting story about loyalty, betrayal, and even the nature of faith.  It deftly uses humor in even the most serious situations to keep the overall tone lighthearted — it’s a bit like an extremely profane, old-timey Western. The interactions between characters were also a treat, such as Sarge’s pontificating about his war record, or Preach’s sermonizing/lusting after Roswell.  I just wish there had been a more definitive final battle, as the ending sequence was a bit too abrupt to be a satisfying conclusion to the tale, and despite the roguelike nature of the gameplay, there are definite objectives and a clear endpoint along the way.

Wild Bastards was a joy to play.  Despite a few small rough spots with enemy AI and the general scourge of RNG, I looked forward to each play session. Even after the campaign credits rolled, I found that the game offered a staggering number of challenge mode missions, and I plan to put more time into it as the completionist in me looks forward to unlocking the achievements while conquering every map and mission.

Wild Bastards sounds like it shouldn’t work. Its foundation is a patchwork of different genres frankensteined into a single title and the frenetic FPS portions are broken up by long stretches of slow-paced tactical movement and galactic navigation. Despite all this (and the damned RNG) I can’t deny that it all works. The story is filled with fascinating and funny (if not likable) characters I wanted to see succeed. The tactical portions present interesting choices, and the FPS sections are fast and furious. if there was ever a game where the whole was more than the sum of its parts, it’s this one — and it comes highly recommended!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Blue Manchu and published by Maximum Entertainment.It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 16 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Strong Language, Violence. The official description reads: This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the roles of surviving members of an outlaw space gang on the run. Players travel from planet to planet completing quests, recovering lost gang members, and engaging in firefights with enemies (e.g., other outlaws, robots) across western-themed towns. Players use laser pistols, shotguns, blaster rifles, and explosives to kill enemies in fast-paced combat. Battles are accompanied by realistic gunfire, explosions, and cries of pain. Enemies disappear amid smoke and colorful light effects when killed. The words “f**k,” “c*ck,” and “c*nt” are heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Story-based dialogue is completely subtitled.  In game, a visual signal indicates the direction from which enemy movement/speech can be detected, but in-game dialogue does not have subtitles. This dialogue does not affect gameplay, but it does represent banter between characters that assists with world-building. The indicator is not always on screen, but upon detecting an enemy’s movement or speech, a second indicator appears on the player’s compass, approximating the direction of the enemy’s location.  Despite these two indicators, it is possible to be surprised by enemies.  The game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. Keyboard controls are completely remappable, but controller functions are not remappable.

The post Wild Bastards Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Adorable adventure. Clever minigames as combat. Robot dog!!!

LOW A bit too much backtracking for an experience so short.

WTF Did I just dress up like a pinball machine?

Major Daaia has every reason to seek vengeance. 

Her parents, as well as millions of other humans, were slaughtered by the evil Rolars. She’s been raised since infancy to become a perfect killing machine and she’ll be in control of humankind’s greatest weapon, the Shikon-X — a fighter capable of modular transformation, with weapons and shields powerful enough to take the fight to the Rolar forces.

On her first mission, she receives an encrypted communication.  While she can’t translate it, something tells her that she must investigate…  And then she plays some pinball.

OK, Shikon-X is a bizarre little title.  The opening crawl parodies Star Wars, then immediately interrupts itself to worry if the developers might be sued.  Our protagonist, Daaia, is more focused on playing pinball and talking to her robot dog than she is about the war raging throughout the galaxy.  Between moments of absurdist humor, the narrative takes a dark turn for a few minutes to deal with genocide and child warriors.  It’s tonally all over the place, but that’s part of the charm. 

The plot moves briskly, but it doesn’t really have a choice, as the entire campaign can be completed in two hours with two different endings.  Except for a minor interlude involving a lecherous officer trying to spy on a woman taking a shower (which is, sadly, required by the plot) Shikon-X is harmless popcorn-movie-style fun.

The irreverence doesn’t stop with the narrative.  Some of Daaia’s missions are stylized versions of old-school brick-breaking action, like one would have seen in ’80s arcades. Think classics like Breakout or Arkanoid, although the twist is that she’s using her ship to protect a wall, rather than destroying it. 

Another mission plays exactly like a top-down arcade shooter along the lines of another ’80s classic, Galaga.

When our hero has to take on a part-time job (it makes sense in context… sort of) the player enters a minigame analogous what could be found on an old-school LCD watch, and an incredibly important plot point revolves around getting a high score in pinball.

All of the missions control well and are a blast to play, though skillful handling of the shield ship takes a little bit of finesse, as it doesn’t quite control the way one would expect. During these Breakout-inspired missions, the ship circles around the items to be defended. Pushing left and right mostly moves the ship as expected, but pushing left when the ship is at the bottom of the circle continues to move it left from the ship’s POV. For some reason that threw me every single time, but I was eventually able to compensate.

Between combat encounters, Shikon-X plays like any standard point-and-click adventure game, but without the point-and-click. As Daaia navigates around the screen, items with a purpose will automatically receive a caption, identifying it (such as “coffee maker”) and eliminating the pixel-hunt frustration commonly found in point-and-clicks. These objects are important to the plot or solve puzzles, and they’re all activated by pressing X. It’s honestly a bit refreshing to use such a streamlined interface, and to know in no uncertain terms what can and can’t be used while playing.

There are also simple puzzles that follow the internal logic of Shikon-X‘s universe, even if that logic is skewed by normal standards. For instance, I had to construct something by dropping blueprints on an easel, triggering another character to stop what he was doing and build it for me. It was a bit silly, but it made sense in the moment. I was only stuck once during my playthrough because I didn’t realize a maze I was in required me to find the correct person to ask for directions.

Several puzzles can be solved by revisiting past locations to see if anything has changed, or if someone new has shown up to talk to. In fact, this relates to my only complaint about Shikon-X — there’s a bit too much backtracking for an adventure that only takes a couple of hours to finish.

However, this is just a minor quibble. Even with the backtracking, Daaia doesn’t outstay her welcome. In fact, I wish there had been more content. By the time credits rolled, I wasn’t ready to leave this crazy universe, and I wanted to know what happened next. Shikon-X leaves itself wide open for a sequel and actually begs players to tell their friends about it so the developers can fund their next project. I hope they succeed — I can’t wait for more!

Shikon-X Astro Defense Force is delightful. People may find it brief, but the brevity is more than made up for by ample charm and a clear love of the source material it parodies.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Kindermann Corp. and published by Treasure Boy.  It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 2 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Drug Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes. The game features mild drug references (primarily alcohol), and there is a scene depicting lecherous behavior concentrated on a female crew member in the shower. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All dialogue is text-based, and all sound cues are accompanied by a corresponding visual cue.  The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The post Shikon-X Astro Defense Fortress Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fast action. Intense enemy design. Impressive visuals.

LOW Puzzles can be offputtingly difficult in single-player.

WTF There are challenge modes to make things harder???

Teagan wasn’t expecting to start her morning tied to a stake and being burnt as a witch. She certainly wasn’t expecting to be rescued by the spirit of a deceased witch and forced to run for her life without time to mourn her fallen brother, Edwin. 

Finding out that she is descended from a line of witches tasked with maintaining the flow of time and preventing the fall of mankind was almost too much to bear.  Now she must master her newfound powers, attempt to save Edwin by going back in time, and also defeat hordes of enemies under the thrall of the mysterious Dark Puppeteer. 

TimeMelters is a game that nearly defies genre classification. 

It’s partially an action title where players control Teagan from a third-person perspective as she navigates through a fantasy equivalent of the Scottish Highlands while battling foes with an array of magic bolts and life-draining powers. 

However, it’s also something of a strategy/tower defense hybrid.  Teagan gains the ability to go into spirit form, allowing her to fly above the map for a quasi-bird’s eye view to activate summoning and infusing powers while time slows to a crawl. 

Alas, the Dark Puppeteer’s forces are legion, and Teagan, while powerful, is a glass cannon. It takes only one enemy slipping through her defenses to kill her.  This is where TimeMelters debuts its game design coup-de-grace in the form of a third aspect — a time rewinding feature that grants the ability to reverse the flow of time and create copied echoes of herself. These echoes will repeat Teagan’s previous actions exactly, up until the moment that echo would have been killed. 

For instance, the player can move Teagan past a group of enemies the previous version of her has already have killed (tenses are hard when it comes to time travel!) allowing her to concentrate on other foes or achieve other objectives the first echo wasn’t able to. It’s even possible to further alter the timeline by using an echo to distract an enemy that the player can now ambush or lead in yet another direction towards a trap.  It’s astonishing to watch in action. 

I know how this sounds, but read it all again — it makes sense, even if it makes one’s head hurt — but the brilliance of this design cannot be understated.  Using time manipulations and copies of Teagan to defy the odds and solve puzzles that would otherwise be impossible made me feel like a genius. However, therein lies the rub.  I am not super-great at three-dimensional, multi-linear thinking, so this was a real challenge. 

Thankfully, handy markers display the numbers of enemies in a group and the route they are currently taking, which then help the player plan the best use of the limited mana and small number of clones Teagan has at her disposal. For instance, she can kill enemies closing in on her position to gain mana, then switch to spirit mode to scour the map for groups she can ambush so she doesn’t have to deal with them later.  While this all takes a little bit of getting used to, it becomes second nature far more quickly than I would have believed when I first started playing. 

…Then I discovered the co-op campaign. 

With a friend joining in via the Playstation Network, two people can take control of Teagan and her brother, traversing the many levels in TimeMelters‘ campaign, though with slight adjustments in the storyline, dialogue and mission structure. 

For instance, Edwin starts one mission at the opposite end of the map from Teagan, providing cover for an NPC who needs to be protected as he slowly meanders towards the mission goal — a task which Teagan had to coordinate on her own alone in the singleplayer version. 

Players share a mana pool and the rewind feature but they otherwise act independently, so planning and coordination are a must. However, this is offset by bringing double the firepower, which makes battles and puzzles much more manageable than in the single-player campaign.

Despite the fact that I was being pushed to creatively think and temporally strategize in ways that games have rarely asked me to, TimeMelters is a must play — especially for players who have someone to share the cognitive load with. 

Even at its most frustrating, the brilliance on display here is addictive. It would be goofy to say TimeMelters is the best action/strategy/time clone hybrid involving witches I’ve played all year, so let me broaden it a bit and say that it’s one of the best games I’ve played this year, bar none.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Autoexec Games.  It is currently available on PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Three hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. This game features witches using magical forces to kill both human and non-human enemies.  The protagonist absorbs the souls/spirits of dead opponents to power further magical attacks.  The game features heavy occult themes and not-for-kids moments like burning suspected witches at the stake as well as necromancy used as a secondary attack for the protagonist.  There is blood, but not excessive amounts, and most players have seen far worse in other games.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All story-based dialogue during cutscenes is fully subtitled. The majority of in-game dialog is fully subtitled, with occasional declarations by the main character(s) being voice-only.  These additional declarations do not cause the player to miss anything plot specific, but they do add flavor to the moment. I’d say the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The post TimeMelters Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fast action. Clever hidden items. Lots of interactivity.

LOW Backtracking. Damage sponge enemies. Crashes and bugs.

WTF Why are the Bowling Bombs so addicting?

I’ll admit it doesn’t take a whole lot for me to enjoy a game.  I’m lenient on lackluster AI, I don’t need the fanciest graphics, and I am satisfied with linear experiences.  The way I see it, sometimes a guy just wants to blow a bunch of stuff up and mow enemies down, ya know? 

My main requests are A) be respectful of my time — as in don’t make me backtrack a ton, or at the very least give me a good reason, and B) PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET ME SAVE WHERE AND WHEN I WANT.   

To its credit, Phantom Fury gives me a lot to do, a ton of stuff to play with, and lots of enemies to shoot in the face.  Unfortunately, it steadfastly refuses to follow rules A or B, and after the fifth crash to desktop and an unwillingness to launch afterwards, I finally gave up, even though I’d be quite content to kill a bunch more dudes with bowling ball bombs to see credits rolling. 

After her appearance in 2019’s Ion Fury, protagonist Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison returns to do… something about terrorists? Or something? 

Basically, she’ll save the world from evildoers by emptying clip after clip, turning them into ludicrous gibs of gooey spray in the process.  Shelly’s ancestor was the inventor of tech that powers her bionic arm, and somehow that same tech can be misused to threaten the free world… I guess? I stopped paying attention because despite the fact that there’s a story here, it’s paper thin and serves only to give Shelly license to kill folks, wreck stuff, and spout one-liners of varying quality.  (And to be clear, since I’m here for the action, the lack of solid narrative is completely forgiven.)

Anyone who’s even heard of a first-person shooter knows what to do here.  Players control Shelley as she blasts her way through hordes of baddies, explores her surroundings for better weapons and gear, and solves basic environmental puzzles like finding keys to unlock doors or using computer terminals to shut down bothersome turrets. 

What makes Phantom Fury stand out in an otherwise-crowded market of FPS titles is the level of interactivity and some clever item placement that rewards a bit of poking around the generally linear levels — things like Shelley using an enemy’s stun baton as a portable generator, supplying power to elevators and doors.  Additionally, our hero can pick up crates and stack them to climb up to higher vantage points.  She can rifle through file cabinets, pick up items from desks, and even play arcade games and pinball machines.  These unnecessary (but appreciated!) interactions go a long way towards making Phantom Fury feel like a lived-in world.

Sadly, for every little detail that delighted me, there were many that were tedious — I could open every drawer in an office, but the vast majority were empty.  I could access every terminal, but most of them repeat similar messages, which quickly stopped being funny or clever, and so on.

In terms of loadout, Shelly has the standard pistols and machine guns, but she can also annihilate foes with her metal arm, snipe with a crossbow, and blast away with a foam cannon that does freeze damage… possibly?  I could never tell, but it looked cool and messed enemies up. The most enjoyable of these, though, are the Bowling Bombs — homing bombs which are rolled towards enemies, causing satisfying explosions that will down a swarm of foes in one blast. 

Most weapons can be upgraded or modified to allow secondary characteristics by spending collected currency at specialized stations.  These stations also allow her to also upgrade her arm, and an “ion suit” she acquires later in the story. 

Unfortunately, despite the solid fundamentals I’ve just listed, Phantom Fury ends up as an experience that’s more irritating than entertaining.

Damage-sponge enemies mindlessly rush the player, with an enormous amount of firepower required to bring down even the earliest opponents. Their movements are also too erratic and quick to allow for effective aiming, making what could have been fast, frenetic combat unsatisfying. 

This lethality towards the player leads into my next issue — Phantom Fury relies completely on checkpoints, and contains no manual saving of any kind. This might not have been a problem, but the save points are way, way too far apart. Shelly will get killed — often, even on the easiest difficulty levels — so players can expect to cover the same ground over and over again as they try to make progress. 

This forced retreading of content is accompanied by mission-based backtracking where Shelly has to make her way through places she’s already been to open a door she couldn’t access previously, or similar. For instance, in one infuriating level, I was required to go through five or six rooms to pick up a key to unlock a door back in the first “hub” room, then go upstairs to another area, search all of those rooms for another MacGuffin to allow me to enter another room back on the “hub” floor, and so on. A sequence in an office suite made me do the same, having to go back and forth through rooms I’d already seen more than a few times so I could go through a door back at the beginning. The issue wouldn’t be a dealbreaker on its own, but coupled with the other problems, it’s maddening.

It’s a pity — thanks to fast action, tremendous atmosphere, and some genuinely clever weapons, Phantom Fury could be special, but it winds up as frustrating as it is enjoyable.  At this point it’s a tough one to recommend, but I’m hoping that it can be salvaged with some patching and rebalancing in the coming months.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Slipgate Ironworks and published by 3D Realms. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 13 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: At the time of review, this game had not yet been rated by the ESRB.  However, the game is graphically violent. Featuring human enemies frequently torn in half, beheaded, etc., with blood and remnants left on the screen.  Additionally, there is liberal use of intense language, with numerous uses of F— and S— along with other profanity.  It also encourages the use of alcohol (various drinks restore Shelly’s health.  The use of alcohol only serves to make Shelly sway slightly when moving.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.   

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All mission critical dialogue is fully subtitled, but incidental enemy chatter is not.  All gameplay-critical sound cues are represented visually, but sniper shots are not displayed unless they actually damage the player character.  The game therefore is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Phantom Fury Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH I built a mech with a lion’s head and a tail! Lots of stuff to blow up.

LOW Excessive grinding. Repetitive mission structure.

WTF Why is the trailer so fascinated with phallic drills?  Why did I build a mech with one?

Clicking the afterburners while making sure no enemy mechs were on my six, I raced through the ruined city searching for more targets.  I had taken some heavy damage from a barrage of incoming missiles, but my mech was no pushover, and had plenty of firepower to boot.  I locked in on another foe as the sunlight glinted of my mech’s lion head, tank body, and adorable… horsey feet.

Custom Mech Wars revels in being both serious and absurd at the same time. Technically, it’s a third-person shooter featuring millions of rounds of ammo and missiles galore slamming into more enemy mechs than the mind can comfortably comprehend, but it also allows players to build their own creations out of things like subway trains, dragon tails, and the aforementioned horse feet. 

It tries to tell a harrowing (in theory) story of AI run amok and threatening the very existence of humankind, but also combines it with goofy dialogue and meet-cutes between ancillary characters spouting endless exposition.  It’s EDF meets MechAssault and should be a no-brainer for me as it pushes all of my “right kind of stupid” buttons, but I can’t get past the feeling that it’s lacking a certain something.

In the future after some sort of catastrophe, the player is given an underpowered prototype mech and sent off to defeat swarms of enemies, the idea being that they’ll acquire broken parts from defeated opponents and eventually build more powerful units for use. 

Anyone who’s ever played a third-person shooter will be right at home with the controls, in addition to boosters for dashing and aerial maneuvers. Occasionally, the pilot may exit the vehicle to call for a new mech due to damage, or to activate dormant turrets and decoys scattered across the maps to help even the odds. 

In each level, players will face everything from insignificant mini-mechs to screen-filling behemoths with different weapons, attack patterns, movement speeds, and weaknesses to exploit.  There are 40 (!!!) campaign missions and five difficulty levels, meaning there’s plenty of replayability and the challenge can be quite brutal on harder settings.

While the combat is solid, the real claim to fame here is, naturally, the “Omega Customization” which claims to allow players to build just about anything. The creation suite is comprehensive and easy to use, and I was able to build vehicles with wildly different arsenals and defensive capabilities in a matter of minutes. Each build can also be tested before jumping into the campaign.  Defeating harder difficulty missions rewarded me with more parts of increasing rarity, encouraging replay and further building.   There’s even a cooperative campaign where players can work together online to tackle more challenging missions, earning even more rare parts to play with.

Why then, do I consider this title average at best?  There are several reasons. 

First, Omega Customization promises the ability to create anything.  In reality, the most useful and special mech parts are gated behind the hardest difficulty settings.  Early builds limit players to the smallest mech chassis and weakest weapons, meaning it’s simply not possible to win at the higher difficulties, and a defeat means no loot.  Even after beating the campaign on a lower setting, I still didn’t have the parts to build anything other than small and medium-sized robots. 

Compounding this, the missions simply aren’t varied enough to make up for all the grinding required to unlock better parts.  The vast majority consist of nothing more complex than scouring the map and wiping out all enemy mechs. A select few missions give the player something else to do like defending a specific structure, but otherwise, it’s like playing the same mission 40 times for one completion, and then factor in replays… 

The moment-to-moment combat isn’t all that hot, either. Weather conditions some graphical changes, but don’t affect the gameplay in any meaningful way.  I can always see all enemies on my radar, so limited visibility doesn’t change my approach.  Enemies spawn out of thin air, so trying to use the environment to my advantage didn’t make a difference.  Boss fights aren’t satisfying — they’re just big damage sponges.  The story isn’t engaging, and it’s almost impossible to read or listen to the profuse dialogue that plays during each mission while keeping an eye on everything else during battle.

I tried the online co-op, but each time there was literally only one person in the entire world playing at the same time I was.  I was able to play missions with them, but they had clearly done more grinding for parts than I had, as their large-chassis beasts annihilated everything in sight while I basically hung back and watched. 

At the current price, there simply isn’t enough bang for the buck to recommend Custom Mech Wars to anyone but the most ardent giant robot lovers.  It’s entertaining for a little while, but getting more out of it demands far more of one’s time than is justified.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by D3PUBLISHER.  It is currently available on PC and PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  1 hour of play was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Violence. This is a game about destroying hundreds of AI-piloted mechs.  Naturally, there is frequent use of various weapons such as cannons, lasers, and missiles against non-human foes.  Buildings can be destroyed, but the story implies there are no occupants in any of them.  There is implied (offscreen) violence against humans as the player can hear the death screams of allies.  The player can exit the mech and be physically attacked and/or killed, but there is no blood or outward signs of violence other than the player’s pilot falling over.  There is mild to severe profanity used infrequently including s*** and b******.  It is somewhat easy to miss this profanity as the game’s voice-overs are in Japanese, and the translated text appears in a window of the pilot’s HUD while the action is taking place.  It’s pretty safe for kids to watch/play this one other than the language.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All spoken dialogue is subtitled, although some subtitle colors and sizes are difficult to read. All sound effects have an accompanying visual cue. It’s possible to be attacked from behind by enemy mechs, but that happened to me regardless of sound — it’s easy to tell where incoming fire is coming from.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. All buttons are remappable, but mech movement is locked to the control sticks.

The post Custom Mech Wars Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.