There’s an unsteadiness to this return to that certain dimension of sight, sound, and, of course, mind that dulls whatever impact it intends.
The series struggles to find a distinct voice that isn’t beholden to the original film.
The game masterfully uses its microcosm of the internet circa 1999 to examine the way society functions when it’s extremely online.
The show pulls in too many directions at once, many of them far removed from the sporadic charm of its concept.
In its second season, the show’s leisurely road trip downshifts into a total lethargy.
The Occupation’s fierce commitment to immersing the player in its credible world is also the game’s undoing.
The game not only gets you to behave like a rampaging gorilla, it forces you to adapt like one.
The HBO film’s ostensible authenticity does little to add dramatic heft to its stock character moments.
The game ultimately seems less interested in the process of how humanity breaks down than its grisly end results.
The series is unable to render any of the visual imagination its source material practically begs for.
The world the game shares with its predecessors is detailed and bizarre in equal measure.
There are few greater thrills than discovering a new, powerful combo in Slay the Spire.
Season three of True Detective plays to the first season’s strengths, but it also feels like an admission of defeat.
Mutant Year Zero feels most of all like a promising start for something potentially greater.
Hitman 2 is a dense assassination sim bursting with possibility, tension, and wicked comedy.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s evocative, often beautiful sense of place exists insofar as it is still convenient to the player, which harms some of the desperation and hardship the game means to convey.
The game should feel wrong or disjointed with the conflicting elements it includes, but it all creates a strange, poignant, and often beautiful whole.
The game’s focus is less on world-building than the simple, straightforward pleasure of its main mechanics: puzzles and combat.
As much as this is a better, more confident game than Yakuza 6, the series still has plenty of room to grow.
Spider-Man’s mechanics feel fluid and satisfying enough to keep players engaged throughout the entire campaign.