
Reviews
738Interestingly, that’s the first time I’ve spent a few moments thinking about what a Lord of Destruction or Reaper of Souls-like expansion might look like for Diablo IV. The truth is, I’m not even thinking about Seasons or all that interested in what’s in store when the first one kicks off because there’s already so much Diablo here. There are still dozens of hours left in getting my Rogue to where I’d like them to be, and many more demons to slay, new classes to try out, Dungeons to tackle, and Ancestral Items to find and equip. Diablo IV is massive, but it’s also something to savor.
There’s so much more I could share, and there’s so much more I’ll learn once the die-hard community has claimed the game, rightly, as its own. (And has exploited it to degrees even Ninty wasn’t expecting.) But know this, at the very least: I get the sense that this is it. This is now the The Legend of Zelda blueprint, and from here on out, we live in this version of Hyrule, and I couldn’t be happier about that. This is both a true sequel and a hoisted flagpole on what this series is and where it’s going into the future.
Star War Jedi: Survivor is slightly outlier in its foundational universe and in its pedigree and influences. It’s a mish-mash that somehow makes a whole, but for anyone keen on what that means, I can only say saddle up and enjoy the ride, because for its shortcomings and intimidation in size, scope and IP density, Survivor is one heck of a frontier game.
In the end, Redfall is disappointing. A moderately enjoyable co-op game set in a stylish and inviting game world marred by repetitive and bland design and a long list of technical shortcomings.
The creation suite isn’t as robust as it could have been given this is something of a ‘remaster’, while the online side of things is fairly barebones, which does hurt it in an overall sense, but if you want a challenge and don’t mind the cutesy aspect of it all, it’s hard to look past the game and its Campaign mode, bolstered by its peripheral offerings.
Dead Island 2 does leave you wanting more, in a good way. The simple combat is endlessly engaging and gory, thanks to the physics, the weight of each hit, and the next-level destruction that lets you shoot holes through zombies or leave a wound right where your blade struck. In co-op, it’s a blast and funny in ways that watching classic b-movies with friends that feature over-the-top violence. In the end, there’s enough here to make us want Dead Island 3.
A low-poly, low-fi experience that punches so far above its weight it feels like eldritch magic at times is behind it all. The game’s painted representations of its many characters is charming to a fault, and some of the best we’ve ever seen, while its score throughout, as well as the overall audio design, is perfection.
As a game with shiny new visuals, a more cohesive on-brand story and a darker tone, that also doesn’t change much of what made it brilliant in the first place… well that’s the thing, it’s awesome.
It sits alongside other titles in the franchise while falling short and topping previous games, depending on the situation. There’s just nothing quite like that feeling of being in the world that VR delivers, and even though there’s a lot of repetition across the multiple climbing sections, it still trumps doing the same thing as Aloy. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s all so real (virtually speaking) that makes these traditional videogame things feel more repetitive in VR.
The biggest disappointment - outside of the narrative, uneven combat, and characters - comes from the expectation and promise found in the art direction, combat, and Soviet-era Russian sci-fi style. There’s a school of thought that when it comes to a review, you should discuss the content of a game versus what it doesn’t have. The logic is sound, if all criticism comes from a place of unmet expectation, that would be unfair.









