Video Game Review: Nioh 2

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If you didn’t play the original, be prepared to endure a learning curve as you sort out how to mix attacking and evasion effectively while keeping an eye on your Ki (read: stamina) meter. Practically every foe you encounter is capable of ending your life if you get too lazy or think a straightforward hack n’ slash approach with topple lesser enemies without incident. Creating that mindset was the first challenge we had to overcome. It would not be the last.

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Video Game Review: Ori and the Will of the Wisps

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While the game puts lots of tools and options at your disposal, they often don’t feel as smoothly implemented as we wanted them to be. Far too often we found ourselves cursing a missed jump or taking damage from an enemy that our melee strikes carried us into. There’s little more annoying than getting stuck on some thorns, unable to leap to safety as you watch your life slip away. We welcome the challenge of smart level design, but uneven controls added more frustration than we would’ve liked.

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Video Game Review: The Yakuza Remastered Collection

/ Video Game Reviews

This was our introduction to the series, having missed the first two games that launched on the PlayStation 2, so it was fun to revisit it. We were blissfully unaware of the controversy of having elements like the massage parlour removed from the U.S. launch, so it was fun to go back and tool around with a more complete version of the game. It’s also the only one of three here to feature Kiryu as the primary protagonist.

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Video Game Review: Darksiders Genesis

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It’s a nice mix and well implemented, making both solo and co-operative play feel viable and engaging. Progression is meaningful as you find or purchase upgrades that unlock new combos, ammo and weapon effect variants, gadgets for interacting with the environment and so on. The controller gets pretty busy with multiple attacks, dashing, blocking, jumping and more, and even after 20-plus hours we’d still get our wires crossed occasionally. Still, the variety is necessary to keep things interesting across so many battles.

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Video Game Review: Zombie Army 4: Dead War

/ Video Game Reviews

Movement can feel a little clumsy, and characters lack any real evasive actions other than a slide after sprinting, which feels awkward and drains stamina. You do have some tricks up your sleeve at least as various meters get filled, typically by killing enemies, that allow you to do some attacks that help create space, such as one-hit melee kills and slowing time to repel zombies. While it has some shortcomings, the controls ultimately hold up well enough.

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