Big Month for Reviews!

November was a month packed with reviews of all sorts of new and exciting games. With so many to keep track of, we’ve decided to compile all of this month’s reviews together for your viewing and reading pleasure. Check them out!

Need for Speed

“The Need For Speed series has always been something of a chameleon. At various points, it’s been a police chase simulator, a realistic track racer, and even a Cannonball Run-style action movie on wheels. This latest Need For Speed follows in the footsteps of the first Fast and Furious film by exploring the white-knuckled world of illegal street racing. While it’s not a completely novel approach for the series (Underground covered tuner car culture over a decade ago), it does open a few new avenues for Need For Speed’s arcadey but nuanced style of racing–most notably in its progression and customization systems.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode Two — Assembly Required

“After a plodding first episode, Minecraft: Story Mode wastes no time in getting to the good stuff in its latest installment. Episode Two is an incident-packed, propulsive adventure that again feels quintessentially Minecraft, both in how it taps into the game’s lore and the huge community that has sprung up around it.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

The Park

“The Park ends in an area riddled with its loudest scares that feel cheap, which is disappointing given how atmospheric the first part of the game is. Despite its lacking final moments, The Park makes the experience of searching a haunting, abandoned amusement park feel genuinely tense. This, rather than a specific plot point, is what sticks with you after you turn off the game and return to your normal, less disturbing reality.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Yo-Kai Watch

“At first glance, Yo-Kai Watch resembles Pokemon: you collect cute–and sometimes terribly ugly–critters, battle them against other critters, and use your newfound masterdom of said critters to defeat your nemesis. But Yo-kai Watch adds some interesting wrinkles to the formula, resulting in a quirky, engaging experience that brings a smile to your face.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Sword Coast Legends

“Despite its lack of beauty and bite, Sword Coast Legends nevertheless has things going for it. The familiar combat system works, the humour of Hommet helped me survive the quests, there’s a huge amount of loot, and the critical path is solid. It may take too long to get into its stride, but it’s a useful morsel to tide us over until an actual tabletop roleplay simulator arrives.”

Score: 6 — Read the Full Review

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

“If the Call of Duty franchise is a well-oiled machine, Black Ops 3 is the replacement part that keeps the wheels moving into yet another year. It introduces minor changes to an established formula, and in some aspects, this is developer Treyarch near its peak. But in other areas, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 lacks inspiration.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Downwell

“Jumping into a bottomless pit is terrifying. Gravity shows no mercy and no matter how prepared you might be, you’re probably going to hurt yourself. Downwell’s premise embodies this fear. Downwell is a game about diving into the unknown and learning to adapt to the consequences, and it’s a thrilling, action-packed descent.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Rise of the Tomb Raider

“Rise of the Tomb Raider’s first shot pans over the vast, foreboding landscape we’ll soon come to know. In many ways, it functions as a promise on the part of Crystal Dynamics: there are big things ahead of us. And at the end of Lara’s journey, after we’ve seen her through this adventure, and experienced everything the world has to offer, it’s clear that promise was kept.”

Score: 9 — Read the Full Review

Fallout 4

“In the grand scheme of things, Fallout 4’s minor issues pale in comparison to its successes. When you put the controller down, you think about the friend you betrayed to benefit another, the shifting tide of an incredible battle, or the moment you opened a drawer and found someone’s discarded effects, making you wonder how they felt before the bombs fell. In moments like these, Fallout 4 can be an intoxicating experience.”

Score: 9 — Read the Full Review

WWE 2K16

“Worse than the technical shortcomings, off-the-mark combat, and terrible omissions from the roster, Yuke’s failure to capture the heart of WWE makes WWE 2K16 such a disappointment. The modern WWE is overflowing with talent. The series’ inability to deliver on the magic of WWE’s characters and athletes, beyond number crunching and subpar combat, indicates that this series is still far from being able to relive the magic of the squared circle inside your living room.”

Score: 4 — Read the Full Review

Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide

“While games frequently borrow broad design ideas from their influences, developer Fat Shark’s Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide apes even the smallest details of Valve’s classic first-person shooter Left 4 Dead…It’s pretty shameless, but it’s also not such a bad thing. What worked about Left 4 Dead’s frantic cooperative gameplay works here as well.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Football Manager 2016

“Football Manager 2016, while flawed, has fixed just enough of my quibbles to draw me back in. And as ever, Football Manager remains a fairytale generator. It’s perfectly possible to arrive at a struggling club with a grand history, implement innovative new tactics, and take them back to the top. It’s just easy enough that you can do it, but just hard enough that you’re never quite certain you can. It’s balanced on a beautiful knife edge, and its greatest achievement is selling you the fantasy of sitting in the manager’s chair.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Read Only Memories

“In the face of a world and a society that is still struggling to accept lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people, Read Only Memories clearly says that if you can relate to a pretend gender-fluid robot, you can relate and connect with anyone. It’s a bold, declarative statement backed with aesthetic skill on nearly every front. Read Only Memories is a resounding success and one of the most affecting adventures I’ve ever had.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Star Wars: Battlefront

“Star Wars: Battlefront lacks the longevity that makes its source material great. It offers initial engagement, and for the first 10 hours, it swept me through its harrowing firefights at a rapid pace. But then the cracks began to show. In the end, Battlefront feels more like an homage to Star Wars than a substantial Star Wars game in itself.”

Score: 7 — Read the Full Review

Game of Thrones: Episode Six — The Ice Dragon

“By the finale, the danger feels real and your choices feel like they have mattered. At times the episodes pass over ground well-trodden by the original series and the game feels more like an adaptation of the source material than a standalone story, but the introduction of several unpredictable plot twists makes up for the predictability of its earlier episodes. Telltale’s Game of Thrones delivers grand battles and unavoidable heartbreak, and despite some out-of-place or overused elements from the source material, it’s a journey in Westeros worth having.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full review

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

“Considered as a whole, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash does just enough to get by. At moments it shines and at others it frustrates, but mostly it just coasts. Without substantial content to drive longevity, you may end up switching back to Mario Kart sooner than later, but if you’re playing online–or better yet, with your friends at home–you’ll likely overcome the game’s frustrations and squeeze a solid few hours of fun out of its fast-paced, power-up-driven action.”

Score: 6 — Read the Full Review

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

“Those looking for some resolution to the conflicts that started way back with the franchise in 1998 will almost certainly come away satisfied, even if Starcraft’s writing has become comically weighty in recent years. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void doesn’t quite manage the brilliance of Wings of Liberty, but it’s a worthy note to leave the franchise on.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Undertale

“Without spoiling the many ways it will screw with your expectations, it isn’t possible to truly capture how wonderful Undertale is. You wouldn’t know it with a passing glance, but it’s one of the most progressive and innovative RPGs to come in a long time, breaking down tradition for the sake of invention, with great success.”

Score: 9 — Read the Full Review

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters

“There’s beauty in both success and failure in Bloodborne. A one-second lapse in concentration can place you at the receiving end of a fatal combo but if you can maintain a persistent presence of mind, a triple-digit killstreak is not unheard of. Being tested by new foes in these new lands is an unquestionable joy, as is the ability to bring these newfound armaments and treasures into the main game. The Old Hunters is Bloodborne from another time and place, and with more difficult bosses and confounding stories to unravel, it’s a fitting complement to the original, gruesome adventure.”

Score: 9 — Read the Full Review

Anno 2205

“It’s a shame that Anno 2205 takes the game so far into the future and does so little of substance with that premise. Not much has changed from Anno 2070, and what has is almost always worse. Anno 2205 still has a sturdy core of satisfying city planning and construction, but so much has been cut out as to make the game barely worth playing at all.”

Score: 5 — Read the Full Review

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode Three — The Last Place You Look

“Minecraft Story Mode’s third episode is the best so far, weaving action and story in a tight, focused package. This is another short episode (my first playthrough clocked in at less than 90 minutes), which makes Story Mode a little on the brief side compared to recent Telltale offerings. But that brevity is my biggest complaint, which, if you look at it from the most charitable view, means the game never outstayed its welcome.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Skyshine’s Bedlam

“Skyshine’s Bedlam has some good moments, but the story is devoid interesting or layered tales. The experience is largely defined by chasing simple goals while enduring repetitive dialogue and narrative beats along the way. Combat feels good enough, but there’s not much to it, and little to strive for. Not being able to make meaningful, permanent progress is ultimately Skyshine’s Bedlam’s biggest flaw, and when something so crucial is missing, it’s hard to recommend. There is some fun to be had, but Skyshine’s Bedlam ultimately mirrors the reality it depicts. You can survive hardships, but only if you struggle through them.”

Score: 6 — Read the Full Review

The Crew: Wild Run

“Now, just shy of 12 months later, Ubisoft has released The Crew: Wild Run expansion, and like the original, it bursts with ambition, building out the base game with motorcycles, monster trucks, drag and drift builds, new licensed vehicles, dynamic weather, visual upgrades throughout, game-wide physics adjustments, and a massive on-going online competition called The Summit. With such an impressive suite of new opportunities on offer, it’s painful to report execution once again undermines ambition.”

Score: 6 — Read the Full Review

Xenoblade Chronicles X

“Xenoblade Chronicles X is a grand adventure that satiates your appetite for exploration and combat in ways that few games ever do, but because getting started is half the battle, it’s an experience reserved for dedicated players who have the patience and energy to unearth its greatest treasures.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review

Just Cause 3

“Just Cause 3 makes no apologies for its outrageous nature. It’s a power fantasy in every sense of the phrase, placing you in a world rife with destructible environments and giving you creative instruments with which to destroy them. There are intermittent technical problems, and scripted moments detract from the freedom found elsewhere, but in the end, Just Cause 3 provides a spectacular, explosive sandbox experience.”

Score: 8 — Read the Full Review