Games

Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure is a game that offers musical minigames punctuating an adventure about an art thief. Despite this interesting premise, however, the game suffers from a poor selection of minigames and a story with serious problems of structure and cohesion. The story revolves around Raphael, a young thief who, accompanied by his dog Fondue, wears a …

“It’s not my first lost city,” protagonist Nathan Drake says to his brother at a certain point in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which is symptomatic, as this is a gorgeous but ultimately safe sequel that offers familiar set pieces, locales, and characters: it tries very hard to marvel the player with its visuals and spectacle but, just like Nathan …

Narrative-wise, God of War: Ascension is as redundant a prequel as the PSP games, bringing a story that adds absolutely no new layer to its protagonist’s struggles. It follows the series’ formula closely, maintaining a sense of scope and epicness by providing exciting and grandiose set pieces, but ultimately falls short on purpose: Kratos will do incredible things once again, …

Fire Emblem Engage is one of the most bizarre, funny, and challenging entries in the franchise. It marks a stark change in tone from the previous game – the ambitious and brilliant Three Houses – and makes up for its weird narrative shortcomings with great map design and new mechanics. Alear – we can choose their gender and rename them …

The first Titanfall felt like a prototype: a great prototype, but a prototype nonetheless. It had a bizarre campaign carelessly thrown inside multiplayer battles and, despite building a solid gameplay foundation, presented nothing that came close to using it to its full potential. It was a barebones game that was bound to become outdated as soon as its sequel launched. …

Observer is a first-person cyberpunk game with a horror twist that quickly loses its appeal: the main horror scenes build an unbearable atmosphere but drag on for too long, repeating the same tricks over and over again. The game’s protagonist is a Polish police detective called Daniel Lazarski – played by Blade Runner’s Rutger Hauer – who, after receiving a mysterious …

Fragments of the Forgotten Past is an excellent entry in the Dragon Quest franchise (maybe even the best), offering a multitude of complex, touching, and tragic short stories. It certainly can be accused of overstaying its welcome, and its gameplay is too easy for its own good, but Dragon Quest VII still manages to shine by the force of its …

Despite being the remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, one of the series’ first installments, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has the best story since Path of Radiance, developing relevant discussions and tragic characters in a well-constructed narrative. However, it also brings back from Gaiden some uninspired level design alongside some problematic gameplay changes, making it one of the most …

After the series’ brief diversion in the high seas, Unity marks a return to what Assassin’s Creed has always excelled at: parkour inside famous churches. Building a new foundation for the series, based on more elaborate sidequests and freeform assassinations, the game mostly falters with its disappointing story that is too afraid to delve deep into the complicated politics of …

The first attempt at bringing the God of War series into a portable system was not very successful. Chains of Olympus suffered with a shallow story that only became interesting near the finish line and an equally shallow combat system that further reduced the complexity of mechanics that were never originally complicated to begin with. Ghost of Sparta, then, represents …