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ReviewsMultiplatform
Destiny 2: Forsaken: The Kotaku Review
Destiny 2’s new expansion, Forsaken, turns the game into something that people can play as much as they want without running out of things to do. If anything, its tantalizing new pursuits, designed to satisfy the appetites of the series’ most voracious players, may be too life-consuming. Viewed from the outside, Destiny 2 looks largely…
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 21, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformShadow of the Tomb Raider: The Kotaku Review
The new Tomb Raider’s freshest idea is the floating of a question: What if all this tomb raiding that Lara Croft does indicates that she is a treasure-plundering jerk who wrecks other people’s cultures and, worse, their lives? This piece originally appeared 9/10/18. We’re bumping it today for the game’s release. Despite the navel-gazing self-reflection…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 14, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformDragon Quest XI: The Kotaku Review
Dragon Quest XI is the best game in the 32-year-old series. It wasn’t until watching a rough cut of my 36-minute video review of the game on my television at midnight on Sunday night that I decided to make this declaration. I had grappled with saying it in the script I wrote for the purpose…
By Tim Rogers Published September 4, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Guacamelee 2: The Kotaku Review
Guacamelee 2 feels great to play. It’s a demanding platformer with elements drawn from the beat ‘em ups of old but executed with such precision they feel modern. The way throwing a punch can be intertwined with hoping over a pit of lava transforms every obstacle into a puzzle. Despite surface similarities and homages to…
By Ethan Gach Published August 21, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformMonster Hunter: World: The Kotaku Review
Video games often deal in illusions, proffering the fantasy of control and power even when your meaningful influence is minimal. Monster Hunter: World, the new third-person action game from Capcom, absolutely deals in fantasy. It plucks you from reality and sets you in the domains of exotically imposing monsters that you must hunt. In this…
By Keza MacDonald Published August 9, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Dead Cells: The Kotaku Review
In my first game of Dead Cells, I died after about four minutes. In my most recent one, I lasted almost an hour. The time difference between those two attempts says a lot about how Dead Cells evolves as you play it, and how you evolve alongside it. That first game went something like this:…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformThe Banner Saga 3: The Kotaku Review
The Banner Saga 3 is the final entry in a Kickstarted trilogy of strategy games. It’s the culmination of four years of fantasy adventuring, in which the decisions you make on the battlefield are almost as important as those you make in the middle of a conversation. It’s a series that divides its design between…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 2, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Chasm: The Kotaku Review
I went into Chasm searching for something that would knock me on my ass. What I found was entertaining, but nothing more. Plenty of secrets, hidden dangers, and mysterious evils lurk deep within Chasm’s side-scrolling labyrinth, which is made lively and vibrant thanks to some truly amazing pixel art. Halfway through 2018 though, there’s almost…
By Ethan Gach Published August 1, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Hollow Knight: The Kotaku Review
In Hollow Knight, looks can be deceiving. A sad little lamplit town may hide the entrance to a beautiful buried kingdom. A towering knight might turn out to be a sad, small thing in outsized armor. An onrushing green beast may actually be a wee creature disguised by a pile of leaves. And a simple-looking…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 5, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformChrono Trigger: The Kotaku Review
This SNES classic is still almost perfect
By Chris Kohler Published May 31, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformPillars Of Eternity II: The Kotaku Review
Toward the end of my time with pirate RPG Pillars of Eternity II, one of my crew members, foul-mouthed furball Serafen, presented me with a gift. It was a garment meant to be worn by a captain, he said, but after witnessing me pass so many difficult moral tests with flying colors, he’d decided captaining…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 29, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Dark Souls Remastered: The Kotaku Review
When Dark Souls released in 2011, it helped solidify a new genre of action RPG. Since then, players have held onto the game, with fight clubs and massive, yearly revisitations. Dark Souls is more ritual than game at this point, and it was only inevitable that we’d get a remaster. I think I’m okay with…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 29, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Sea Of Thieves: The Kotaku Review
Playing Sea of Thieves feels a bit like working in a theater before the set has been completely built. There’s plenty of space to goof around and a few swords in the wings to have mock fights with, but none of its quite ready for show time. A lack of features and polish has frustrated…
By Heather Alexandra Published April 6, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
A Way Out: The Kotaku Review
A Way Out merges narrative games with couch co-op, and the result is a smart and emotional experience so good that it had to be reviewed by two Kotaku writers. We’ve never played a cooperative experience like it. The game cannot be played alone. It takes two players to guide a pair of convicts, a…
Heather Alexandra & Gita Jackson Published March 26, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Far Cry 5: The Kotaku Review
I’ve spent a long time trekking across Far Cry 5’s fictional Hope County, Montana fighting the members of an apocalyptic cult led by a man called Joseph Seed, and I’m still not sure what their deal is. They drive around blasting weird Christian synth and shooting non-members on sight. It’s weird and terrifying and unsatisfyingly…
By Ethan Gach Published March 26, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformNi no Kuni II: The Kotaku Review
It can be difficult, as a jaded adult, to appreciate a great fairy tale—one where the hero always wins and naivety is a character strength rather than something to grow out of. So it is with Ni no Kuni II. But if you can look past this game’s more childish tendencies, you’ll find a fairy…
By Jason Schreier Published March 23, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Kingdom Come: Deliverance: The Kotaku Review
Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a grand idea. In a genre awash with fantasy epics, it sought to ground a role-playing adventure not in some distant and imaginary land, but in history. There would be no wizards, no dragons, no giant rats—just you, a horse, some mud, and a cast of flawed human beings. Drawing on…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 14, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformSecret Of Mana: The Kotaku Review
Secret of Mana is a broken game that I will always love. Playing through the recent remake forced me to reckon with why that is. Originally released by Square in 1993 on the Super Nintendo, Secret of Mana is the textbook example of the “action role-playing game.” Like any RPG, the damage you do to…
By Chris Kohler Published March 9, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Metal Gear Survive: The Kotaku Review
Metal Gear Survive is wreckage of the long battle between the series’ lead creator, Hideo Kojima, and Konami, his long-time employer who ditched him three years ago. Kojima split with Konami after a lifetime of making Metal Gear games, going back to the first in 1987. Survive is Konami’s attempt to make a new one…
By Heather Alexandra Published March 7, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Dynasty Warriors 9: The Kotaku Review
If you’ve played an hour in one Dynasty Warriors game you’ve played an hour in all of them. That’s been the conventional wisdom for a while now and although Dynasty Warriors 9 doesn’t disprove it, it does point toward some interesting new possibilities for the series in its new open world setting. Dynasty Warriors 9…
By Ethan Gach Published February 14, 2018