Destructoid

There’s a lot of mindless fun to be had, especially when you’re in the thick of it, fighting off a horde with a crew. The upright warrior types chasing after you in an attempt to maul your team is a hoot, especially when you fire back with a few power-up abilities and blow them away. If the game was swapped to first-person and gunplay had a little more weight and better sound effects, Aliens: Fireteam Elite would instantly get better.

A huge impact was left on me by Psychonauts. While that’s not likely to be the same story for Psychonauts 2, I wasn’t disappointed. There was no single place that let me down so severely that it soured the overall experience. Nothing that struck me as starkly inferior. It’s maybe not quite as genius, but it’s still a mind worth exploring.

Twelve Minutes is certainly fascinating to unravel. Some of it might start to feel a bit clunky, when dialogue starts mashing up against itself and characters move in awkward ways, but on the whole, it’s a puzzle I kept wanting to piece together, both fascinated and afraid of the answers I might find. It keeps the story driving forward, and if some deep, dark character drama set in a time loop sounds appealing, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is now the definitive version of an already great game; and although the DLC does feel like too much of a companion piece at times, it doesn’t feel tacked-on in the slightest. If you’re keen on experiencing the game from the ground up, this is the way to do it going forward.

The snappy pacing, not-overly-comedic tone, and engaging run-and-duck shootouts are all high points. I also have to commend the readable art direction, which looks surprisingly crisp for a PlayStation VR game (at least on a PS4 Pro), and the soundtrack, which kept me on my toes and subconsciously nudged me along until I finished Fracked in one sitting.

It’s lightweight, effective, and I can’t think of another place where it’s this well-executed. If you’re willing to stomach the rough patches and politics, there’s a rich game within. One that explores how people affect and are affected by the world. Personally, I think it’s worth the trip.

The games held within are not just overly basic, but often not even fun. Even the quest design is an escort quest and a forced stealth section away from a broken controller. It makes me feel like the bad guy when I say these things to such a cute and innocent game. I absolutely wanted to love Button City, but it gave me no reason to give up another quarter.

Haven Park certainly fits in with the current trend of wholesome games. It’s warm, it looks delectable, and you can make Flint say “Pew” every time you hit the A button. But like many of its ilk, that wholesomeness is a cover for an experience that is largely unengaging. Nothing here coalesces into a complete package or meets its full potential, leaving players with an assortment of good ideas in desperate need of some solid execution.

It’s dense as ever lore-wise, and it’s got some good music and worlds to move through. It’s a follow-up to Axiom Verge that doesn’t content itself with a simple recitation of the first game’s high points, and if what’s detailed above sounds like your jam, you’ll probably have a good time with it.

At its core, it is a long and unexciting game. A lot of the time I felt like I was trying to decode the game’s logic and keep plates spinning rather than run a successful bootlegging operation. When everything clicks, it can be somewhat satisfying, but that happens so rarely, you’d think the game was sampling its own wares.