Warrior Cats: Clans of Forest is a very by-the-numbers experience that looks to bring the beloved books to life like never before. As a licensed game, it does the bare minimum to present the property in a pleasant manner and does ultimately succeed in adapting the source material. However, as a videogame detached from that, it's surprisingly basic and lacks polish in even the most basic things.
Beautiful settings, entertaining characters and situations, and smooth animations no matter what is happening. With us being in the midst of the spooky season and fast approaching Halloween, Moonlight Peaks is a great cozy time and feels right at home alongside many of the other slice of life titles.
Few survival horror games have really presented compelling stories, and often have their gameplay at the forefront of the experience. Remothered: Red Nun's Legacy is quite the opposite, and while its gameplay isn't revolutionary, the game is nonetheless compelling and disturbing, complete with moments that will make your skin crawl.
The tale of Baba Jaga has been told many times before, and while certain aspects always remain, Reka handles itself in a fairly unique way by having you work alongside her, as opposed to simply existing away from those stories and believing in those tall tales. With its storybook charm and cozy tone to its presentation, Reka is one magical experience that can cast quite the spell on you.
Valor Mortis feels like a promising first attempt at something different. One More Level has demonstrated that a first-person Soulslike can work, even if the execution isn't always as successful as the concept itself. With some additional polish and a little more variety, this could have been a genuinely excellent addition to the genre.
Ultimately, Planet Zoo 2 is a good sequel to what I already considered one of the best games in the genre, even if it doesn't quite improve upon everything I would have liked it to. The addition of aquatic animals, flying birds and the expanded conservation systems are all welcome, and the sheer level of creativity and depth on offer remains incredibly impressive.
Stupid Never Dies is a rogue-lite action brawler where you play as Davy, a zombie with a crush on a human popsicle by the name of Julia. As monsters attempt to take over the Earth, Davy and his allies need to act fast, eat enemies, and use their powers to stop a diabolical monster named KOM from taking over the world.
Hellraiser: Revival is a single-player first-person survival horror game that feels like a combination of Condemned: Criminal Origins, Silent Hill, PT, and Resident Evil; most notably its 7th and 8th entries, all mixed into one game. That's not to say it feels like an imitation of those games, or leans on them to do the heavy lifting, but it does set the expectations of what you're getting here.
Forever Ago tells a deeply human story about grief, love and the memories we carry with us, without becoming overly sentimental or constantly reminding you what emotions you are supposed to feel. At a particularly stressful point in my own life, it gave me something unexpectedly comforting, and that is an experience I am unlikely to forget anytime soon.
Order of the Sinking Star isn't completely perfect, with some puzzles starting to feel repetitive when you've spent too long working through the same mechanics. However, being able to freely jump between regions does an excellent job of reducing that frustration, while the constant evolution and combination of its mechanics keeps introducing new ways to think about problems you thought you already understood.
While it is great fun to dominate enemy after enemy and begin your rise to power, there just isn't enough variety to keep the game from falling into a repetitive gameplay loop. While the removal of the store all those years ago certainly improved the outlook many had on the game, the removal of some of the game's best online systems feels like a bad call, especially given the community that was built around them.
While the story was never something I was really invested with here, the free flowing combat and the Nemesis system carry this game to incredible heights. While I still believe that Shadow of War is the better game, at least with its online components, it's hard not to be impressed by this game all over again. And, with the portability of the Switch 2, you can now save Mordor on the go.
Dragonwilds is a slow and steady grind that while can be rewarding, still feels a bit rough around the edges, making me wonder if more time in Early Access could have refine certain parts of the whole experience. Still, if you've been itching for a survival game that isn't built around more realistic visuals, or you are fan of RuneScape, Dragonwilds does offer a compelling and fairly faithful conversion to the survival genre, just make sure you play with friends, and watch out for those blasted hunters.
