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What are the best games where choices matter on Xbox One?

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Mar 11, 2023

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21 Games Considered

Best games where choices matter on Xbox One	Price	Genre	Platforms
-- Mass Effect 2	$19.99	Action Role-Playing, Third-Person Shooter	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows
-- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	$39.99	Action RPG	Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
-- Moon Hunters	$14.99	Action Role-Playing, Roguelike	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Linux, macOS
-- Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition	$39.99	Dungeon Crawler RPG	Windows, macOS, Linux, PS4, Xbox One
-- Mass Effect	$19.99	Action Role-Playing, Third-Person Shooter	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows

Mass Effect 2

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Memorable cast of authentic characters

Mass Effect 2 has an amazing cast of both human and alien characters who feel like real people. While just about any NPC you meet is fantastic, your squad members are the ones that stand out the most. You have about ten squadmates to choose from, not including DLC characters. They all have backstories and traits that are believable and natural. Their personalities shine through the most during their optional loyalty missions where you help them complete certain personal tasks separate from the main story. One of your human squadmates, Miranda, is cold and intimidating at first, since she distrusts you for her own reasons. Her loyalty mission is unexpectedly emotional, showing Miranda as more flawed and caring than she lets on. There's also Garrus, one of your returning squadmates from the first Mass Effect. He's a turian that looks somewhat bird-like in design, but his easygoing personality is very cool, making him feel relatable and reliable. His loyalty mission shows his darker side as you help him tie up loose ends from his past. Getting to know everyone through dialogue and squad banter is a lot of fun, making it easy to grow attached to your favorite characters. See More

Top Con

The main enemies, the Collectors, feel misplaced in the trilogy

The Mass Effect trilogy's story is about stopping the Reapers -- ancient, unknowable beings who destroy all life -- but this gets interrupted in Mass Effect 2 by the Collectors who are more like minions of the Reapers. The Collectors are dangerous because they harvest humans, though this is not as important as the Reapers who seek to end all life in the galaxy in Mass Effect 3. It would have made sense for Mass Effect 2 to focus on the Reapers instead of the Collectors, since they're more of a secondary problem. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Third-Person Shooter

Top Pro

Your choices have true consequences on the story

Your choices have direct consequences on how the story plays out, not only in this game but also across the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy. In Mass Effect 2, you get to choose between options like keeping or destroying inhumane scientific research that could help an entire galactic race, or exposing the dark truth about a squadmates' family for the greater good or keeping it hidden. Who you bring along for the final mission and how you lead your team has a huge impact on the ending. Each of your decisions, big and small, carry over into Mass Effect 3, opening things up for many different playthroughs to see how things turn out with other choices. See More

Top Con

Levels are very linear

Mass Effect 2's levels are more like winding corridors with the occasional wide open space here and there. You always have a clear sense of where to go next, but there isn't much room for exploration. It's also obvious when enemies are about to show up, since you'll come to a place with a bunch of chest-high walls conveniently spread around the area for you to take cover behind. It's unimaginative, making missions feel like you're only going from point A to B. See More

Top Pro

Improved third-person shooting combat from the first game

The combat in Mass Effect 2 is much better than its predecessor in every way possible. You can enter cover and vault over it whenever you want this time around instead of your body magnetically sticking to whichever surface you stand next to. Guns use expendable thermal clips, which are like bullet clips, meaning you're no longer held back by your weapons overheating if you fire them too much. They also feel more satisfying to shoot with a real kick to them, especially the meatier shotguns and sniper rifles. Your squadmates are smarter this time around, like how you can order them to use their own abilities to chain them with yours for cool bonuses like melting armor with fire powers. The combat is actually fun in Mass Effect 2 and stands on its own next to the great story and characters. See More

Top Pro

You can customize your protagonist Commander Shepard

There are lots of ways to make Commander Shepard feel like your own character. The character creator at the start of a new game lets you change all sorts of options, from your hair, to your skin color, the shape of your nose, mouth, and ears, and so much more. Or, if you prefer, you can simply stick with the default male or female Shepard. You also get to pick which class you want to be for combat: soldier, infiltrator, vanguard, adept, or sentinel, each with their own unique abilities, like the adept's helpful "magic spells" and the infiltrator's specialty with sniper rifles. You can role-play as Shepard however you want, with plenty of options to customize your looks and your combat specialties for whichever role suits you the most. See More

Top Pro

Good romance subplots

The romance subplots in Mass Effect 2 are great. Playing as male Shepard, you can romance most of your female squadmates, while female Shepard can romance most of the male squadmates. If you romanced someone in the first Mass Effect, then that story continues here in Mass Effect 2. There are certain consequences for being unfaithful where your partner will confront you or the person you're cheating with in a heated showdown. Sticking with one person for the whole game rewards you with a romantic scene near the end of the story. A lot of care and attention went into these subplots, giving you the chance to see each of the characters in a new light. See More

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Choices matter

The Witcher 3 has three completely different endings. The decisions during main quests and side-quests affect how the endings play out, adding up 36 possible outcomes. It feels refreshing to actually impact your character's fate and not just trot along a path to an inevitable conclusion. See More

Top Con

Performance hiccups

Even though the frame rate is capped at 30 frames per second it often drops below that. You also might experience long load times or textures not loading fully in some areas. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Action RPG

Top Pro

Gigantic openworld

The total size of Witcher 3's world is about 52 square miles, which is 3.5 times larger than Skyrim and 1.5 times larger than Grand Theft Auto V. Thanks to the sheer size you feel like you're in a real world and not a constrained box. See More

Top Con

Story quests may feel like a chore

If you happen to enjoy doing side quests, you might end up overleveled for the story quests, allowing you to easily power through them. This may remove the challenge and enjoyment, causing it to feel like a chore, especially because the loot also remains low-level. See More

Top Pro

Attention to detail in almost every facet of the game

The Witcher 3 is how an AAA title should play, sound, and feel like. Its deep combat, beautiful graphics, amazing sound, interesting quests, immersive story, and almost every other aspect of the game has a surprising amount of polish. See More

Top Pro

Side quests are as good as the main quests

There are almost no lazy "go get me 12 turtle shells" quests in the Witcher 3 and you get to experience some amazing writing even in the most obscure side quests. See More

Top Pro

Immersive story

Developers have taken great care to make an interesting story, but what really pulls you in is the dialogue and character interactions. They're made great through excellent writing, stellar voice-overs, and great body language. The characters on-screen may feel like real people, so it's very easy to forget you're playing a game and not watching a TV series. See More

Top Pro

Lots of random side quests

You can just walk around for hours, find abandoned structures, caves, etc and find interesting side quests to do. See More

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Convenient ways to get around the massive world

The world is intimidatingly massive but thankfully there are ways to cut down on travel time. You can ride a horse, use a boat, or just simply fast travel to explored locations. This makes the experience more accessible and enjoyable as a whole. See More

Moon Hunters

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Choices are actually meaningful

This game constantly gives you interesting choices that influence gameplay. Based on the unique choices you make, your character gains certain personality traits such as proud, greedy, vengeful, and many more. Depending on which traits you earn in your playthrough, different quests and character interactions become available. For example, if you're really brave, certain other NPCs might give you an extra quest. If you're greedy, they may not want anything to do with you. When vengeful, they may request you to carry out a kill for them. Sometimes bosses can even be seduced instead of killed if your choices in the game led you to earn the seduction trait. See More

Top Con

Camera can skip around in local co-op

Sometimes during local co-op, the camera seems to jump around at times as it isn't quite sure where it's supposed to be when there are multiple players on the screen. See More

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Roguelike

Co-Op:4 Player Online / 4 Player Local

Top Pro

Soundtrack is excellent

The music ranges from mysterious during exploration to a panicked beat during combat. Beautiful, soothing melodies with haunting vocals play during more emotional moments. All of the tracks in the game fit the area or experience they are made for, and do a great job of conveying the mood. Sometimes when you encounter a specific character or make a specific dialogue choice, the music will change based on the mood you just invoked. The soundtrack was so heavily beloved and requested, that it's sold as a standalone. See More

Top Con

Ranged classes are overpowered

Some classes like Druids and Mages are way too powerful because of their ranged attacks and AoE crowd control that can lock down an entire group of enemies from across the map. It can often feel like ranged has a distinct advantage due to having more control over enemy placement, whereas melee is a bit more difficult to play. See More

Top Pro

Gorgeous art style will draw you in

Visually, the game just looks fantastic. The graphics are crisp, clean, and have a hand drawn feel - oftentimes resembling a colorful painting. Everything has a very polished smooth feel to it, without jagged edges. There's a great use of color in the tilesets. The color ramping is handled incredibly well, especially in the shades of green in the grass. From forests with spanning mountain vista backgrounds to a fiery wasteland with crags and volcanoes, each map has a stunning level of detail to help bring you into the game world. See More

Top Pro

Upgrades are super rewarding and provide instant gratification

Since runs aren't very long, gear is immediately rewarding to cram as much power as possible into a short play session. Instead of loot just being a simple increase in stats, your power will sometimes double instantly. When you equip something new, you can immediately feel the difference in your character's power level, always making it a rewarding experience to get an upgrade. See More

Top Pro

A new experience each time you play

The overworld, levels, and vendors are randomly generated each playthrough which means you'll always be able to explore new maps or find new quests. As you play, you can also unlock different classes, personality traits, recipes, and skills which all contribute to trying something different in your next run. For example, you might learn the ability to talk to animals, so in all your future runs you can now converse with animals which could open potential new quests and interactions. You may even an unlock a new class which provides a whole fresh set of spells and abilities. See More

Top Pro

Great for bite sized gaming sessions

Each playthrough from start to finish is designed to be completed in an hour or two. See More

Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

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Mechanics take some trial and error

There is a basic tutorial, but it doesn't explain some of the finer aspects of the game such as using spells. Most spells can be used in and out of combat, giving you access to locked or hidden areas. For example, if you want to get into a locked door, you can burn it down. If you want to save a burning ship, cast a rain spell over it. While this is an intuitive mechanic, it may take a while to get used to. Until then you might spend some time scratching your head, trying to figure out how to proceed. See More

Top Pro

Morality based gameplay that actually impacts the game

You'll be confronted with moral choices during your quests. These choices change how other characters perceive you, affecting the overall story and ending. This makes the story feel more realistic and immersive since actions have consequences. See More

Specs

Genre:Dungeon Crawler RPG

Co-Op:2 Player Local / Online

Top Con

Building a working party may take several tries

Some party setups work better than others and some don't work at all depending on the difficulty. A bad party can make the game feel like an impossible struggle at times. This may cause you to restart several times until you get the right setup, allowing you to enjoy a much smoother playthrough. See More

Top Pro

Self-deprecating humor allows the game to stay lighthearted despite many serious overtones

The writing in the game is often entertaining and humorous as the game does not take itself too seriously. There are quite a few inside jokes to be found for this type of genre game as well as many situations that lighten the mood, such as talking pets that hand out light-hearted quests. See More

Top Pro

Highly interactive world

Divinity: Original Sin has a highly interactive world. This ranges from NPC interactions, elemental spells that can affect the environment, to a cornucopia of in-world items and objects that can taken or moved. There are so many things you can do, it's very easy to immerse yourself and have a great time. See More

Mass Effect

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Your choices have true consequences on the story

Your choices have direct consequences on how the story plays out, not only in this game but also across the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy. You get to choose between options like sparing or killing off an entire race of potentially dangerous enemies, saving or sacrificing one of your own squad members to finish an operation, and dealing with an enraged teammate who feels betrayed by your actions. How you handle certain side objectives during story missions can also have an impact on how the galaxy at large reacts to you. Each of your decisions, big and small, carry over through your save files to Mass Effect 2 and 3, opening things up for many different playthroughs to see how things turn out with other choices. See More

Top Con

Tedious inventory management

The game overloads your inventory with weapon upgrades, modifiers, equipment, and all sorts of duplicates of those items. Clearing out your inventory can take several minutes at a time since there's no quick way to select the things you don't want and get rid of them. If you're diligent enough to trek to a store to sell things off every single time you're low on inventory space, you can make quite a bit of money, but it's not always convenient to do this, like when you're out in the middle of a remote planet. It takes a lot of patience to not get annoyed with managing all of your items and components. See More

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Third-Person Shooter

Top Pro

Good romance subplots

The romance subplots in Mass Effect are great. Playing as male Shepard, you can romance either Liara or Ashley, while female Shepard can romance Liara or Kaidan, your human male squadmate. There are certain consequences for being unfaithful where your partner will confront you or the person you're cheating with in a heated showdown. Sticking with one person for the whole game rewards you with a romantic scene near the end of the story. A lot of care and attention went into these subplots, giving you the chance to see each of the characters in a new light. See More

Top Con

Clunky third-person shooting combat

The third-person shooting part of Mass Effect isn't that fun because of how janky it is. Your character gets glued to cover whenever you're close to a wall instead of letting you press a button to enter cover whenever you want. The actual shooting mechanics are slow and heavy, and with guns that overheat if you keep firing them for too long. Suicidal squadmates run around getting killed unless you remember to keep directing them to hide behind cover everywhere you go. The combat is just unsatisfying, clearly taking a backseat to the game's story and characters. See More

Top Pro

Calm and thoughtful atmosphere

There's something calming about Mass Effect's atmosphere that really gives you the space to think and reflect. Exploring places like the indoor trade port Noveria feels special because of the cool blue color scheme, the blizzard blowing outside the full pane windows, and the ambient, yet quietly emotional synth music looping in the background. Even the title screen has a thoughtful song playing over the beautiful sight of Earth from orbit. The atmosphere is wonderful in a way that's almost nostalgic, making you feel right at home each time you start up the game. See More

Top Con

Vehicle controls with the Mako are absolutely terrible

Driving around on planets to get from place to place in the Mako is awful. Controls aren't as responsive as they should be and the vehicle's physics are all over the place. Just trying to make basic turns is bad enough; roving up a rocky mountain, for example, makes the Mako bounce and spin around like it's in zero gravity. These driving parts are mandatory and unskippable, so there's no way around them. It's so bad that the developers got rid of the Mako in Mass Effect 2 and 3, but you unfortunately still have to deal with it here. See More

Top Pro

You can customize your protagonist Commander Shepard

There are lots of ways to make Commander Shepard feel like your own character. The character creator at the start of a new game lets you change all sorts of options, from your hair, to your skin color, the shape of your nose, mouth, and ears, and so much more. Or, if you prefer, you can simply stick with the default male or female Shepard. You also get to pick which class you want to be for combat: soldier, infiltrator, vanguard, adept, or sentinel, each with their own unique abilities, like the adept's helpful "magic spells" and the infiltrator's specialty with sniper rifles. You can role-play as Shepard however you want, with plenty of options to customize your looks and your combat specialties for whichever role suits you the most. See More

Top Pro

Memorable cast of authentic characters

Mass Effect has an amazing cast of both human and alien characters who feel like real people. While just about any NPC you meet is fantastic, your squad members are the ones that stand out the most. They all have backstories and traits that are believable and natural. Ashley is a human soldier who joins your team early on. As you chat with her in between missions, you get to learn about her history with her family and religious faith back on Earth. But then as you explore the Citadel, the game's main hub area, she makes snide comments about all the aliens around, keying you in on her true feelings about non-humans. By contrast, your scientist team member Liara is an asari: Mass Effect's species of blue female-only aliens. Despite being reserved and shy, Liara often jumps at the chance to gush about her research. Talking to her gives you the chance to learn more about the asari and why exactly she's so devoted to her academic studies. Getting to know everyone through dialogue and squad banter is a lot of fun, making it easy to grow attached to your favorite characters. See More

Dragon Age: Origins

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Plenty of mods available

Nexus Mods contains many mods to change just about any aspect of the game such as adding new dungeons, new companion interactions, and ways to save time like with the auto loot mod. See More

Top Con

Too easy to fix relationships with companions who dislike you

It's way too easy to smooth things over with disagreeable party members. Your companions can grow to actively dislike you if you pick certain dialogue options with them, or they can judge you harshly for certain story decisions you make. By giving them gifts, you can greatly improve their approval of you as if nothing had ever happened in the first place. None of your relationships with your companions really have any consequences when it's this simple to make them like you again after disagreements. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Tactical Role-Playing

Top Pro

Well-implemented tactical combat with unique playstyles

The combat gameplay is great, featuring various playstyles and a key way for you to control the flow of battle. The different battle classes -- warrior, mage, and rogue -- have branching specializations with unique abilities. Going with a templar that branches off from the warrior class gives you an edge over enemies who use magic, while duelist rogues have more speed to strike quickly and dodge the most hits. You can also pause the game to bring up a radial menu to pick which abilities to use and specific enemies to target, meaning you can take your time in battle and not get overwhelmed by everything. Mastering your class specialization and using the radial menu to your advantage gives the combat a lot of strategic depth. See More

Top Con

Characters are partially clothed during romance scenes

The romance scenes include characters wearing their undergarments, which ends up looking weird and distracting. Full nudity isn't absolutely necessary, but it just seems off here. Having more creative camera angles to cover things up would have had a better effect without coming off as unrealistic. See More

Top Pro

Your choices can give you vastly different playthroughs

The choices you make affect the gameplay and plot, opening things up for very different playthroughs. Right from the start, you pick which race and combat class you want for your protagonist -- human, elf, or dwarf -- each with their own playable origin prologue, such as a human mage with noble blood or a dwarf warrior part of the working class. Which origin you pick also has a big impact on how your companions and NPCs react to you, such as people respecting you more if you're a noble or looking down on you if you're an elf. Once you become a Grey Warden, the choices you make during the story segments determine who will join you for the final battle. You can side with the people whom you know will provide the most support in the finale against the darkspawn, but these characters might be irredeemable and reprehensible, so you might not want to help them after all. Or there may be other groups or people that you absolutely want to help, yet this comes at a great cost that negatively affects others in the world. It's a balancing act where you have to carefully take everything into consideration. All in all, your choices give you the chance to experience unique playthroughs, with potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay if you want to see how each outcome plays out. See More

Top Con

Silent protagonist even though everyone else has voice acting

It's jarring that your protagonist is the only character in the game who doesn't speak. While everyone else has a voice with their dialogue, it's awkward when you pick your own dialogue options and your character says nothing. When you choose your response, there's a pause between the other person's lines that doesn't quite feel right. It would have been nice if the voice acting were consistent, with voices for everyone or no one, to keep things on the same page. See More

Top Pro

Great ways to interact with companions

There are interesting ways to get to know your team members in Dragon Age: Origins. Giving them gifts, talking to them at camp, and listening to party banter are all realistic and fun. You can increase approval with your favorite characters by figuring out what types of gifts to give them, like general trinkets in the shape of a dragon, or more sentimental items with personal meaning to them like a parent's cherished locket. While resting at a camp, you can chat with anyone about what's on their mind, opening up side quests, and possibly triggering romance options. Party banter is always insightful and entertaining, with characters giving different lines depending on who you bring along. For instance, if two of your party members don't like each other, you can expect them to snipe insults or make more passive-aggressive backtalk depending on their personalities. Your companions feel like actual people you can interact with and listen to, each with their own preferences and perspectives. See More

Top Pro

Epic dark fantasy story

The story in Dragon Age: Origins is long and expansive with many different parts that are all fit together by the finale. As a Grey Warden, you specialize in killing demon-like darkspawn enemies in order to prevent them from taking over the world in a cataclysmic event known as the Blight. Even with the darkspawn threat, there are many other issues across the country of Ferelden, such as the oppression of mages and elves at the hands of humans, and several displaced dwarves who were nearly wiped out during the Blights in the past. There's plenty of political drama as well, with you and your fellow Grey Wardens caught in the middle of a betrayal at the highest level of Ferelden's monarchy. You play a big part in the culmination of the drama with the choices you make, many of which aren't just black and white. All of these threads come together nicely by the end as you fight against the darkspawn to save the country and all the people that you get to know on your journey. See More

Divinity: Original Sin II - Enhanced Edition

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Very deep turn-based combat

Winning battles in D:OS2 is equal amounts of preparation and tactics. When preparing for battle, you need to consider your group setup, your formation as you enter the battle, and even what equipment you bring with you. For example, during one battle you fight against an ice dragon that constantly freezes the ground. Any character that steps on the frozen ground will slip. To avoid this, you can equip spiked shoes on your characters before the battle, allowing them to retain footing. During combat, you always need to keep in mind things like turn order, positioning, height, and how various magical effects interact with the environment and characters. For example, standing on a cliff increases your range and visibility, using a lightning spell on a puddle electrocutes all characters standing in it. Fast characters will get a turn first, so a group of fast characters could end a battle without letting enemies retaliate. As a result, the combat has enough depth and variety to satisfy any RPG fan and even entice newcomers of the genre. See More

Top Con

Slight learning curve

Very few game worlds have the same interactivity as D:OS2. Because of this, it can be easy to forget that using fire near an oil barrel will cause it to blow up in your character's face, or if a fire is blocking your way, you can just douse it with water. As a result, it might take a while until you get fully used to the interactivity. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Turn-based RPG

Co-Op:2-4 Players

Controller Support:Yes

Top Pro

Excellent and thorough voice acting

Every single dialogue line in D:OS2 has a voice-over. From the prattling of an overzealous city guard, to the lines a sketchy shopkeeper feeds you, to even the conversations you have with forest animals. You even get a narrator to read out long walls of text for you. On top of that, each and every voice actor's performance is superb, providing depth and nuances even to obscure side-characters, which is hardly ever experienced in games. See More

Top Pro

Complete freedom when building your character(s)

Even though you choose a class when creating your character, it only affects your starting equipment. You can create a character build with any skills you like without class or archetype constraints. This includes a fire mage that wears heavy armor while wielding a shield and a hammer, an archer that can use teleportation magic to always keep the distance, and countless more. You even get to build your companion characters from the ground up, allowing for hundreds of party combinations. As an added bonus, once you complete Act 1 of the game, you can respec your build whenever you want, free of charge. Because of this, you don't have to worry about messing up your build, allowing you to freely try out any skill combination/setup. See More

Top Pro

Great soundtrack

D:OS2 has an expertly composed soundtrack, giving the world a great amount of color and atmosphere. From the mellow flute permeated with ambience and a divine chorus when you travel down a road, to the upbeat strumming of string instruments as you ransack a tavern, to even a ominous orchestra during a confrontation with a dragon. Wherever you are in the game, the soundtrack is a joy to listen to. See More

Top Pro

Outstanding multiplayer mode that allows for endless content

D:OS2 features a Game Master mode, which lets you create custom multiplayer campaigns for up to 4 players, with the 5th player assuming the role of a Game Master. When creating a campaign, you can use any asset within the game, such as characters, items, etc, and import new, user-made assets as well. You can even create new quests, levels, and alter any of the existing assets, allowing you to go as far as creating a sci-fi campaign if you have the patience. Additionally, because there is a game master, you can create various role-playing events not possible in a normal campaign. For example, you can designate one of the playable characters as a kleptomaniac, so whenever they're near an object that can be stolen, you'll have to roll a dice to determine if that character resists the urge to steal or not. On top of that, the game master can control NPCs, add quests, and make rule adjustments on the fly. There's enough creative freedom to create any campaign/story you want, keeping you interested in D:OS2 long after you've finished the main campaign. Even if you don't want to create a campaign on your own, you can just download a campaign made by another user. See More

Top Pro

Huge amounts of content and choices

The main campaign has a staggering amount of content. The maps you'll explore are massive with various routes, containing numerous quests, battles, secrets, and even ambushes along the way. Even if you rush through the story, a single playthrough will last you about 50 hours. D:OS2's greatest strength, however, is the ability to choose. This includes choosing your character, your companions, what builds to use for them, what route to take when exploring the map, how to solve various encounters and quests, and many more. Every single choice affects how the story progresses, and a bad decision early on can come back to haunt you later. As a result, there's enough variety to keep multiple playthroughs new and exciting from start to finish. See More

The Walking Dead: Season 1

Top Con

Some annoying quicktime events

Some of the quicktime events can feel like they drag on a bit too long and require too many button/key presses, especially during extended action sequences. See More

Top Pro

A lot of replayability

Resembling an interactive novel, the game plays out as a series of dialogue choices or decisions that result in specific actions. It's pretty interesting to replay the game many times and choose all the different ways of handling situations just to see how they play out. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Narrative, Adventure, Survival Horror

Top Con

Superficial player impact

While the game may on the face of it appear to have far reaching consequences for the decisions taken by the player. At times it can appear that these consequences cause mainly only superficial differences as the story progresses. See More

Top Pro

Stellar voice acting brings the characters to life

Voice actors deliver their lines with a lot of emotion, never feeling forced or fake. This excellent acting really helps draw you into the story and its characters. There's a lot of great chemistry between the various voice actors as well, resulting in conversations that flow well and sound very natural. See More

Top Pro

Standalone story makes it accessible for all

Even if you don't read the comic or watch the TV show, you can still play and enjoy this game. It's a completely standalone story. While there are some mild easter eggs for fans of the show/comic, you can still understand the game just fine without any prior knowledge of The Walking Dead. See More

Top Pro

Difficult decisions

The Walking Dead requires that the player make decisions throughout, these typically will be in the form of action or conversation options. In many of these situations there is no obviously correct or best choice yet these decisions must be taken in stressful situations often giving a matter of seconds. They can be morally testing as you can attempt to do what is 'right', what is best for the group or what is best for yourself as well having differing repercussions on how your character is perceived by different people. See More

Top Pro

Engrossing storyline

The Walking Dead tells a genuinely gripping story which can be a testing and exhausting experience for the player. It is told through the interactions between people fighting to survive in a new world in which resources are scarce and threats can come from both the living and the undead. Perhaps the major strength of the game in creating a compelling story telling experience is that it causes the player to care about the characters involved. This is an all too uncommon experience in gaming, and in The Walking Dead adds much greater meaning to the decisions which must be made along the way. See More

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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Top Con

Forgetful NPCs can break immersion

After completing certain story quests NPCs get new lines added to their dialogue based on your decisions. Sometimes the NPCs might become forgetful and return to their default dialogue, which can break immersion, especially if they talk about an event that's been long resolved. See More

Top Pro

Unrestrictive skill-based RPG system

Skyrim has no set character classes or equipment/spell limitations. Instead, it allows you to form your own class based on how you decide to play. For example, sneaking increases your sneaking skill, hitting an enemy with a shortsword increases your one-handed skill, taking damage while wearing leather armor increases your light armor skill, and so forth. You can you play however you want and the resulting character will be a perfect match for your playstyle, giving Skyrim a different feel from other RPGs. See More

Specs

Genre:Fantasy Role-Playing

Top Con

Combat is too simple

Most of the time you can just whack an enemy until it dies and it involves very little strategy or planning to succeed. For example, targeting specific body parts doesn't deal extra damage, nor can you cripple an enemy. There are no vulnerabilities, so you can't set furry forest animals ablaze easier than humans. The enemies also lack any real variation in how they attempt to fight you – they just run at you swinging wildly or attack you from afar. Because of this the combat is very one-dimensional and can start feeling like a chore after a while. Luckily most of the combat issues can be fixed with mods, allowing you to enjoy a more varied and deeper combat experience. See More

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Deep lore rivaling classic fantasy literature

Skyrim inherits the stories and world-building of The Elder Scrolls series, which stretches back 20 years. It has numerous stories surrounding the various races (orcs, elves, lizardmen, demons, etc.), mythical beasts, gods, cataclysmic events, parallel worlds, and just about any fantasy trope you could think off. What's even better you can read the lore in books found in-game, allowing you to immerse yourself for countless hours. See More

Top Con

Buggy and crash prone

While this game is not as buggy as it was upon release, there are still many people that encounter various bugs and crashes. These can happen in both modded and unmodded games and it's a common occurrence in Bethesda released titles. Fortunately, there are some community mods that try to fix most memory issues, stability issues, and general bugs. See More

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Huge variety of mods

Bethesda Softworks has upheld a tradition of releasing their internal content-creation tools to the public since Morrowind (2002). Many modders transition to new Bethesda games as they are released, bringing their experience with them and helping newcomers through forums and wikis. As a result, Skyrim's mod selection is outstanding in both variety and quality. See More

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

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Great soundtrack

Daughter, the indie folk band from England, worked on the tracks for Before the Storm, pulling together many of the game's great moments with thoughtful acoustic tunes and moody piano tracks. The more upbeat, hopeful tracks fit in incredibly well with Chloe's adventurous scenes with Rachel, giving a sense of wonder as the two explore Arcadia Bay together. One song in particular, 'All I Wanted', is a memorable, catchy folk track that captures the feeling of Chloe and Rachel supporting one another through their struggles, which is what Life is Strange: Before the Storm is all about. See More

Top Con

Limited exploration

With much of the focus on the storytelling, it's still unfortunate that Chloe can't leave the designated story areas without turning around and repeating the same line about how she's supposed to focus on her objective. The limited areas to walk around in are understandable, yet disappointing, with missed opportunities for Chloe to walk down the street from her home and see what her neighbors are up to, or for her and Rachel to hang out in more places around Arcadia Bay together. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Adventure, Narrative

Top Pro

Chloe is more likable this time

In the first Life is Strange, many players complained that Chloe was insufferable and selfish as Max's best friend, complaining in order to have more of her time when she might not have deserved it. This time around, watching the events of Before the Storm unfold from Chloe's eyes is enjoyable, largely thanks to how easygoing she is with Rachel--for the most part--and how far she's willing to go to sacrifice for her throughout the plot. Chloe makes dorky jokes that don't always land and back-talks school staff at Blackwell Academy with harmless ease, making her a much warmer, sillier character compared to her prickly, temperamental self in Max's adventure. See More

Top Con

Third episode falls flat in some areas

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is an all-around stand-out title, with the first and second episodes building up to an impactful third installment that feels lacking in certain aspects. Without getting into spoilers, there are a few plot holes that aren't wrapped up by the end, and much of the tension in the episode falls flat because of these glaring holes that none of the characters bother to address. See More

Top Pro

Improved writing over the first game

The original Life is Strange suffered from some instances of awkward lines that sounded like a middle-aged adult trying to emulate how teenagers speak; thankfully, Before the Storm has a much clearer, down-to-earth script that helps the characters sound more authentic and real. Rachel's use of "hella" is more amusing this time around, as it gives context as to why Chloe picked up on it and used it frequently in the first game. Overall, each of the characters in the game are more well-rounded across the three episodes thanks to the smooth writing. See More

Top Pro

Choices have consequences

Much like in the first game, Before the Storm features several choices throughout the game that have an impact on future plot points across the three episodes. How these choices end up impacting the ending are debatable, but there are still a myriad of choices that change the outcome of a single playthrough, such as Chloe's decision to handle certain sums of money, or whether or not she's willing to accept her mother's unlikable new boyfriend. Chloe and Rachel's interactions can also be limited to friendship or expanded into a romantic relationship through player choice. See More

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

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NPCs react differently to you under certain circumstances

With the many organic and grounded systems in Kingdom Come: Deliverance that mirror real life, how you present yourself to the world has an impact on how people react to you. If you haven't bathed in a few days and you smell badly, some female NPCs might find your manly odor attractive, while others will show their disgust with you instead. As another example, when you're a mere peasant at the start of the game, you won't have much stature or influence, so certain people will either ignore you or talk down to you. But as you grow strong enough to equip a knight's armor, NPCs will trust you more and reveal information to you that they otherwise wouldn't have. It's a great system that truly leans into the game's role-playing elements, making you feel like Henry represents you as a person. See More

Top Con

Optimization issues on consoles and lower-end PCs

For those playing on a launch PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, as well as an older PC, you might have issues with the game's framerate. Framerate drops are common throughout the game, possibly ruining your experience from time to time. If you're on PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X, or you have a more high-end PC, then you shouldn't have too many problems with performance. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Vastly different ways to play the game

Depending on which skills you choose to master, your playthrough can be incredibly different from other players who chose to specialize in other abilities instead. There isn't much of a limit to how strong or proficient you can become in any one specialty, giving you the opportunity to be the best at whatever you set your mind to. You could spend most of your playtime perfecting your skills at hand-to-hand and sword combat, growing strong enough to storm enemy strongholds and kill anyone who crosses your path. Or you can become a master thief instead, improving your lockpicking and stealing skills enough to break into any store or building to amass tons of riches--on the condition that you also learn how to not get caught, of course. It's not likely that two people will have the exact same playthrough where they focus on the same specialties. See More

Top Con

Brutal learning curve at the beginning of the game

Since you start the game at rock bottom as a peasant, you have to learn your skills the hard way, including with combat. You'll have to earn your skills by learning as you go along, but because you start with nothing, it's all too easy to fail at even the most basic encounters you come across. Sword fights and fist fights will really punish you while your skills are low, and you'll probably end up dying way too many times for your liking. If you stick with it, you'll be able to get by, but the difficulty curve might put some players off entirely. See More

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Rising up in society from a peasant is a unique experience

Kingdom Come: Deliverance puts you in the shoes of an unremarkable commoner named Henry with few skills or specialties, giving you the opportunity to enrich his life and abilities however you see fit. You don't start off as a powerful fighter like in so many other games, and you don't even have the most basic ability to read. Instead, you have to start from scratch to learn how to do anything and everything in the game, from fighting to reading and plenty more, with people looking down on you while you're still unskilled. As you become better at fighting, you can earn a full suit of plate armor, rising up from the ranks of peasantry to a skilled knight, with NPCs treating you with more respect in response to your accomplishments. It's a wonderfully realistic approach to role-playing that isn't afraid to make you claw your way up and improve your lot in life. See More

Top Con

The game feels unpolished overall with smaller bugs and story pacing issues

Despite Kingdom Come: Deliverance's immersive and innovative systems, there are a bunch of other, smaller bugs throughout the game, as well as some pacing issues that ruin the flow of the gameplay. You're likely to come across invisible walls in places such as stairs that you have to jump over, and other issues like NPCs missing their heads, or being stuck in a T-pose as they float across the map. Story-wise, the last sections of the game are a slog; they really could have benefited from more work and polish dedicated to them. As a whole, the game could have used some more time in the oven before releasing, since all the bugs and pacing issues really degrade the whole quality of the experience. See More

Top Pro

You learn and level up skills in organic, realistic ways

Instead of leveling up in traditional ways with the usual experience points, Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a much more organic approach to the ways you can grow your character. Playing as the protagonist Henry, you'll need to practice your skills in areas such as sword play, fist fighting, alchemy, and even reading. Just like in real life, as you fight more, craft more, and read more, you'll improve in ways that feel like you're actually learning as you go. You're illiterate when you begin the game, gradually retaining letters and words as you keep practicing. It's a refreshing system that helps you feel like you're really getting better at the skills you work on the most. See More

Top Con

Game-breaking bugs can corrupt your save file

The game is filled with bugs that could potentially cost you hours of playtime. Your save file could get corrupted, forcing you to start the game over from scratch. It's incredibly frustrating and has been an ongoing problem since release, keeping quite a few players from progressing. Thankfully, the developers are working on ironing out this issue through patches. See More

State of Decay 2

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Online co-op with friends makes the game more fun and strategic

Four-player co-op online with friends is great. You all get to work together to plan your next move, gather resources, and protect your base by killing zombies. The third-person shooter gameplay shines as you work cooperatively, since you can watch each other's blind spots to take out any enemies that might catch someone off guard. You can also pull off more strategic moves, like coordinating fire strikes to distract zombies, while another person hurries to collect the resources in an area. Working as a team lets you accomplish more and experience the game in a way that the single-player mode just doesn't offer. See More

Top Con

Not for players who dislike micromanaging small details

If you don't like keeping track of resources and other necessities that come along with base-building games, then State of Decay 2 probably isn't for you. Your main objective is keeping your survivors alive and your base thriving, meaning you have to scavenge the open world for food and materials, make sure your peoples' needs are met, and a lot of other similar tasks. Finding and allocating resources is what makes or breaks your group and your operations, so if you hate keeping track of things like that, then you may not want to pick this game up. See More

Specs

Genre:Survival Horror, Third-Person Shooter

Co-Op:4 Player Online

Top Pro

Open-ended approach to managing your base, resources, and survivors

You have the freedom to make choices in State of Decay 2 that determine how things turn out for your operations. You're tasked with taking care of groups of survivors during a zombie apocalypse, so that means gathering food and other resources to keep your people and your base safe. When you know you're about to exhaust all the resources in one area, you have to decide if you want to keep your base in what's probably a safe location away from zombies, at the cost of having to cross more distance to find materials in the future. Or if you do move your base to a resource-rich location, you may end up getting swarmed by zombies more often, and potentially losing your survivors. These types of moment-to-moment choices end up having a big impact down the line, making each of your gameplay sessions unique. See More

Top Con

Buggy

There are some random bugs that pop up during gameplay. They're mostly physics-based, with zombies dropping down from the sky as they spawn, or vehicles tipping over and flipping around for no apparent reason. Some of them are pretty funny and aren't too detrimental, but they still make the game look and feel unpolished. A few patches from the devs should iron out these issues. See More

Top Pro

Excellent performance

Everything runs well at solid framerates on both console and PC. If you're on the Xbox One X, or if you have a high-end PC at max settings, you'll hardly notice any stuttering or FPS issues. The regular Xbox One and mid-tier PCs also run the game quite well. See More

Top Con

No dedicated servers for online play

Not having dedicated servers makes online play hit-or-miss. The peer-to-peer connection means that one player in the lobby acts as the "host" for your game. If the host's individual connection is bad, then everyone in the lobby suffers with possible rubberbanding and packet loss. You'll be fine as long as the host's connection is okay, but if not, then you're out of luck. It would have been better to have dedicated servers to avoid these awkward issues. See More

Top Pro

Good price of $29.99 USD at release

State of Decay 2 is priced well at launch at only $29.99. Even better, with the Xbox Game Pass, you can get the game for only $10 on either PC or your Xbox console. This is great for anyone who doesn't want to shell out the usual $59.99 for a retail game as soon as it's released. See More

Fallout 4

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Addictive to collect loot

You can pick up most of the stuff you see laying around in Fallout 4. Every item, including weapons and armors, can be broken down into reusable crafting materials. This makes it hard to stop yourself from going around and collecting everything in sight because everything has a purpose. You can also find unique versions of equipment on the corpses of legendary enemies. Each of these items has an additional effect such as speed boost or extra damage. This may cause you to constantly pick fights you'll probably lose, but it's worth it once you get your hands on that extremely good piece of equipment. See More

Top Con

The dialogue choices are confusing

Most of the dialogue choices will only show a few words that don't actually reflect what your character is gonna say. This creates a disconnect between you and your character, making it seem like you don't control what your character is gonna say at any point. See More

Specs

Genre:Action RPG

Co-Op:Single Player

Top Pro

Solid gunplay with an interesting twist

The gunplay plays so well it almost feels like a pure FPS. You can shoot from the hip, aim down the sights/scope, or even just run and gun. However, what makes Fallout 4 stand out is VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System). When you activate VATS, the time slows down to a crawl, allowing you to mark body parts of enemies. When you execute it your character will automatically shoot the marked body parts. This is very useful for getting out of tight spots, allowing you to instantly clear groups of enemies or kill a really tough enemy charging at you. It also has the benefit of making you feel like an expert gunman, even if your aim isn't that great. See More

Top Con

Pipboy UI feels unpleasant to use

When you open your Pipboy (a personal computer that manages your quests, inventory, character data, etc) the screen containing the useful information only covers about a fourth of the entire screen. As a result some of the elements are too crammed, requiring a lot of scrolling. This can be really annoying if you're trying to find something in a list of 100 items. See More

Top Pro

Diverse enemy types keep the gameplay exciting

There a lot of different enemies found in the game such as super mutants, feral ghouls, robots, mutated wildlife, and many others. All of them have their unique behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses. For example, robots often use heavy weaponry such as rocket launchers and lasers, making it really hard to deal with them. Fortunately enough, they're very vulnerable to EMP grenades and can also be hacked. Another example are the feral ghouls that will almost always charge at you. They can surround you really fast, clawing away at your health and affecting you with radiation, but they lack any intelligence. So if you plant mines infront of you and attract them with gunshots, they'll lose their legs in the minefield, leaving them at your mercy. The various enemy types and methods you can fight them with keeps the gameplay fresh for a long time. See More

Top Con

Occasional bugs

There are bugs in the game that users will run into. While most are not game breaking, it can detract from the experience. See More

Top Pro

Deep perk/skill system

Fallout 4 has a great selection of perks centered on surviving in the wasteland. You'll gain a point each time you level up, allowing you to select one of the perks. The perks can give you an increase to your sneaking ability, improve your lockpicking skills, or even add unique effects such as causing bullets fired by enemies to ricochet back and killing them. There's easily enough variation to make multiple playthroughs feel fresh and exciting. To make it even better, if you don't like multiple playthroughs, you can just unlock every single perk on a single character, albeit with a much longer playtime. See More

Top Pro

Great storyline

The main story has a very personal theme of family and revenge, featuring a main character looking for their lost son in a post-apocalyptic version of Boston. The side-quests also provide a decent backdrop, expanding on some of the plot elements of the main story. There are many twists and mysteries, but the narrative remains coherent throughout the story, creating a very enjoyable experience. See More

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Interesting settlement management

In Fallout 4 you can set up thriving communities in various locations. You'll have to provide the settlers with housing, bedding, water, food, and protection. Over time you'll be able to establish trade routes between the settlements and expand into an empire spanning the entire territory of Fallout 4. This really gives it the feeling like you're trying to rebuild society, which is a welcome change in a post-apocalyptic game. See More

Top Pro

Huge world with loads of content

The world of Fallout 4 is massive so there's quite a lot to do. Many areas to explore, tons of quests to complete, and lots of collectibles to find. There's easily enough content to keep you playing for over a hundred hours. See More

Top Pro

You can adjust equipment to suit your playstyle

In Fallout 4 you have a lot of options when modifying your equipment, giving you a chance to make equipment that matches your playstyle. You can take an assault rifle and change most of its parts. Each part you can change has an upside and a downside to it. For example, adding a long range scope would make the rifle useless in close quarters, but it would be great for pick off targets from afar. You can also tailor your armors for various situations. You can lower the weight or add pockets to make carrying loot easier. Or you can add additional linings or padding to gain increased protection against various hazards such as radiation. See More

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Addicting building mechanic

One of the more interesting parts of managing your settlement is the house building aspect. There are various preset houses you can put down quickly, but you can make large structures entirely from scratch, starting with the foundation and ending with the roof of a 10 story building. While there are some constraints such as limited building area, you can really let your imagination loose, allowing you to spend countless hours on it. See More

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Companions can help make the game a little easier

There are a bunch of companions to find in the game, starting with Dogmeat, the dog. Each companion has their own skills that can help you. For example, Dogmeat can dig up hidden items and bring them to you. They can also distract the enemy, causing the combat to be a little easier since all the attention won't be on just you. The only real downside is that you can only use one companion at a time, but you can easily swap them out. Using a companion is not mandatory either, so if you prefer the added challenge you can travel without a companion. See More

Top Pro

Great selection of mods

You can can find all sorts of mods at the Bethesda website, giving you the freedom to change the parts of the game you don't like. This includes interface adjustments, graphical improvements, additional quests, and many other things. See More

The Walking Dead A New Frontier

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Top Con

Some choices will be biased towards Clementine

The whole reason season one and two existed was to tell the story of Clementine. She has grown into the beloved character of the franchise. This third installment in the series, however, has us playing as a new character named Javi. Clementine is still heavily involved the storyline, and this is where the issue arises. Sometimes we are asked to make choices as Javi that involve Clementine. However, since we've built up a strong liking for Clementine over the past two games, it's way too easy to swing all choices in her favor - even if Javi wouldn't actually make those choices himself. This can be bit a immersion breaking and make for some rather biased decisions that make little to no sense in the actual context of the story. See More

Top Pro

Great story

TWD: A New Frontier features a brand new story in The Walking Dead universe with an all new cast of characters. This time around, you play as Javi, an ex-baseball player with a gambling problem who is trying to protect his family during the zombie apocalypse. Javi is somewhat of the black sheep of the family, but as the world devolves in chaos, he is forced to step up and protect his sister-in-law, nephew, and niece after his brother disappears. The four of them hit the road together to salvage for supplies and search for a new safe place to call home. During the course of the story, you'll be fighting for survival in this messed up world, meeting interesting characters, running into plenty of problems, and making really tough choices to save yourself and your loved ones along the way. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Story Rich, Adventure

Top Con

Very short

For a $25 game, only having seven to eight hours of playtime among five episodes is pretty poor. Each episode is only 60-90 minutes long, whereas episodes in the other two games in the series were around three hours apiece. While the story itself is great, it is overall much, much shorter than season one and two, which may be a great disappointment to some. See More

Top Pro

Main character Javi is very likeable

Main protagonist Javi is a bit of screw-up and the black sheep of his family when the story starts. However, as the world starts to fall apart, he quickly grows into his own and becomes a very likeable character. He is forced into many tough situations where he is always putting his family's safety above his own, and as a result, we get to watch him grow as a person. Overall, he is very easy to relate to and it's fun to cheer him along on his journey from goofball to hero. Javi is a great new addition to the series. See More

Top Con

Too many quicktime events

QTEs are used during action sequences, which is fine, but sometimes they are used in places where they are not needed, such as pushing a dumpster to block a doorway or connecting some wires. These unnecessary QTEs disrupt the pace of the story at best, and at worst, completely ruin immersion by having to repeat the same frustrating sequence over and over when you mess up. See More

Top Pro

Loads of difficult and impactful choices

At the heart of this story-driven game are the wide array of interesting choices you get to make. What you say and do will have an impact on how the story plays out, so it's kind of fun to ponder each one. Characters will remember your past actions and conversations, which means all your decisions and dialogue choices carry a lot of meaningful weight. How you choose to interact with various characters will influence how they treat you down the line. Each episode contains many different dialogue paths, as well as 3-4 major heart-wrenching, tough, and super impactful decisions that literally determine the fate of each character and how the story unfolds. See More

Top Pro

The game is cross-platform

You can play it on PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Kindle Fire HDX, and Android. See More

Top Pro

Huge amount of replayability

Resembling an interactive novel, TWD: A New Frontier plays out as a series of dialogue choices or decisions that result in specific actions. It's pretty interesting to replay the game many times and choose all the different ways of handling situations just to see how they play out. See More

Top Pro

Maintains a sense of familiarity while offering a new perspective

Even though we take on the role of the new character Javi this time around, an old fan favorite, Clementine, makes an appearance and becomes heavily involved in the story as well. The inclusion of Clementine in the story and the newfound relationship between Javi and Clem really adds a wonderful touch of familiarity to the series, while still giving us an all new story to play through. We get to see the world through Javi's eyes, instead of Clem's, which is an interesting perspective shift. See More

Top Pro

Voice acting is incredible

Voice actors deliver their lines with a lot of emotion, never feeling forced or fake. This excellent acting really helps draw you into the story and its characters. There's a lot of great chemistry between the various voice actors as well, resulting in conversations that flow well and sound very natural. See More

Dragon Age: Inquisition

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You get to feel like a commander in combat and in the story

As the Inquisitor, you're the focal point of a huge movement to wage an army against the main villain. You're in charge of a ton of things: fortifying your base of operations, scouting for intel and resources, crafting gear, managing your companions in battle, picking which story decisions are most beneficial to your cause, and more. Besides controlling your own character during the real-time combat, you can control any of your team members, which gives you access to their diverse range of skills and tools to deal with any situation. If your Inquisitor can't heal, for example, then you can switch to a character like Solas who can take care of your party's wounds on your orders. You can also pause the action by bringing up the tactical radial menu, where you take your time to assign where you want your characters to go and which enemies to focus on. Story missions revolve around picking sides during conflicts that benefit your army the most, such as siding with the templars against the mages in order to have them with you for the final battle, at the cost of possibly angering your teammates who disagree with your choices . It's up to you to decide the best course of action and deal with any possible consequences. There is a lot to keep track of, but these decisions give you plenty of agency, helping you feel like your decisions and directions matter. See More

Top Con

Slow combat animations

The combat animations can often be really slow. This causes problems, like when an attack's animation takes too long to finish, and you're left second guessing whether or not the attack will go off at all. You have to wait for the animations to play out, which can be troublesome if your aim is off or the enemy moves. This takes away from the combat's strategic play, leaving you open to attack while you wait for the animations to sort themselves out. See More

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Tactical Role-Playing

Top Pro

The areas you discover are huge

The areas in Dragon Age: Inquisition are simply monstrous. The world is divided into separate maps that are each gigantic worlds on their own. From the sprawling hills and valleys in the Hinterlands to the expansive snowy ruins of Emprise du Lion, every level has tons of outposts, environmental challenges to solve such as leaks of hazardous gas or broken bridges, side quests to discover, and people to talk to in order to learn more about the world and the lore. All of this is amazing for people that enjoy exploring and making new discoveries. See More

Top Con

Forgettable multiplayer riddled with awful microtransactions

It's easy to forget that the multiplayer in this game exists. The developers basically tacked it on, taking the same single-player combat and changing it to horde mode for a multiplayer environment. It's the same type of combat over and over again with no meaningful progression. The microtransactions are abhorrent, some of them costing an arm and a leg just to get you ahead in a multiplayer that hardly anyone plays or cares about. This mode is such a blatant cash grab that you're likely better off avoiding. See More

Top Pro

Building relationships with companions is enjoyable

There are a few neat ways you can build relationships with your party members and non-playable war advisers. These aren't limited to just romance options -- you can spend time with characters to become better friends with them, too. Improving your approval rating with characters comes down to picking certain dialog options, either to flirt with them or agree with their worldview. Doing unique side quests to help with a character's personal matters unrelated to the main story also goes a long way toward showing that you care about them, letting you see more of a character's intricate backstory and motivations. After building up enough approval, you get a special scene with your romance option or friend, and afterward you can return whenever you want to spend more time with them. It's a really good system that lets you feel like the characters are your actual comrades, helping you grow more attached to them throughout the game's long story. See More

Top Con

Stiff and repetitive character animations during cutscenes

Character animations are incredibly stiff in ways that look robotic. During cutscenes, you'll see the same types of movements over and over, like a character shifting their waist back and bobbing their head to seem important or defiant, or moving their head down with their words to make a point. If there were more variation with the animations instead, then the stiff delivery might not be all that bad. See More

Top Pro

Tons of content

There's lots of content in Dragon Age: Inquisition that can keep you playing for a long time. The game offers a very long main story, with even more side quests and hidden areas that can take many hours to complete. The main story has plenty of branching decisions that affect how your playthrough turns out, encouraging you to play the game twice or more to see the different outcomes. Exploring the open world for the epic dragon slaying side quests is a great challenge with cool-looking fights and amazing loot. For those looking for a game to sink 60+ hours into, this is a good choice. See More

Top Con

Generic villain drags the story down

The main villain, Corypheus, is so bland and unremarkable that he worsens the entire story. He's a darkspawn, a type of demon enemy in the Dragon Age lore, hell-bent on bringing ruin to the world for reasons that aren't all that compelling. He doesn't have much of a personality beyond his evil tendencies, turning him into more of a caricature. If you've seen any old generic Hollywood movie with an evil villain, then you know all there is to see with Corypheus. He's such a safe and boring villain that he bogs down the narrative, making most of the twists and turns predictable and uneventful. See More

Top Pro

Lots of interesting characters and lore

The characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition are great, with intriguing backstories that delve into the game's lore. Early on, you meet a couple of once-high-ranking members of the Templar Order, like Cullen, who isn't a playable character, but serves as your military adviser instead. He previously fought back against the corruption in the templar ranks, and now wants to help you on your journey to unite an army against evil forces. Another interesting character is the elf named Solas, a playable mage who knows a lot of information about the world. He acts as your guide, providing you with intriguing lore about the places you visit, like the Fade, a mystical realm filled with spirits and demons. Even though he seems one-note in his role as a dispenser of information, has some hidden depth to him that may end up surprising you. All of the characters have layered personalities that fit with the lore surrounding them. See More

Top Con

Overwhelming amount to do at start of game

After the prologue, you arrive to the Hinterlands: a massive level with way too much to explore. Even though it's great that the open world is so big, you pretty much get dropped off in the Hinterlands without enough direction or guidance. The game just tells you to look around and find the next story quest, which can be overwhelming in the first few hours. It would have been better if you had the chance to get eased into the expansive feel of the maps first. See More

Vampyr

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Only traditional Vampire game available. Nothing else comes close.

Very mature game. Nearly all characters are adults with very interesting story backgrounds. You can get very attached to many of them and be very reluctant to kill them for XP. If you do kill them, their dying words will haunt you See More

Top Con

Subpar character animations

The character animations in Vampyr aren't the best. The main protagonist's animations are okay, since they clearly had the most work put into them over the other NPCs. His combat moves lack weight, though, which is part of why the fighting doesn't really live up to much. For everyone else, their movements are stiff at best and wonky at worst, always looking unnatural or weird. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:Horror, Action Role-Playing

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You get to meet plenty of different types of characters

The breadth of characters you come across adds a lot to the atmosphere and culture. Since this is in London, you meet both highborn and lowborn NPCs, with certain accents and style of clothes to match their class and status. The people you decide to help through quests have all sorts of personal histories and secrets for you to learn about, adding to the dynamic of whether or not you decide to feed on them for your own survival. Vampyr's diverse characters adds more weight and intrigue to the role-playing aspects, making the game's story much more memorable. See More

Top Con

Some performance issues

From time to time, you may run into some framerate dips and other stuttering problems. The unstable performance is made even worse by the autosaves that pop up and completely freeze the game for a few seconds. Even though these things don't happen that often, when they do occur, they're distracting enough to pull you out of the moment. They give the overall impression that the game is unpolished. See More

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Gloomy, foreboding atmosphere in London during World War I

The game's setting is very fitting for a horror story. Set in London during the years of World War I, the city is gritty, dreary, and full of despair, yet there are some bright spots, like the many flavors of characters you interact with. The time period also lines up with the outbreak of the Spanish flu, adding to how drab and creepy the city is. Buildings are run-down, the streets and alleys you pass through are dark and unsafe, and you can never be quite too sure if you can trust the people you run into. The atmosphere is really well-done here, with lots of detail and realism. See More

Top Con

Combat isn't all that fluid or fun

The hack-and-slash style action combat leaves a lot to be desired. It's not terrible, but it's not good, either. When trying to lunge and attack enemies, there's a strange sensation of your attacks not quite connecting and your overall movements not really syncing up with your button inputs. It's pretty clunky and it lacks a cohesive flow, though there are some cool moments like grabbing opponents to feed off of their blood. If you don't mind how weird everything feels, you might find some enjoyment from the combat anyway. See More

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Compelling approach to choosing your victims

The role-playing elements of Vampyr are the strongest parts of the game. You're a vampire, so you need to feed on blood to survive through killing the various characters you meet. These NPCs are regular townspeople, questgivers, and so on. If you decide to get to know your target better through solving their problems and speaking with them, you earn more experience points once you finally do devour them. This also has the interesting effect of blocking off future story paths and possibly making your city less safe once certain characters are dead, giving some weight to your choices through long-lasting consequences. See More

The Walking Dead: Season 2

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Standlone story makes it accessible for all

Even if you don't read the comic or watch the TV show, you can still play and enjoy this game. It's a completely standalone story. While there are some mild easter eggs for fans of the show/comic, you can still understand the game just fine without any prior knowledge of The Walking Dead. See More

Top Con

May distress some people

There is a lot of violence, gore, and very disturbing situations. Some people may not react well to some of the scenes. Despite the fact that the main character in this game is a young girl, this is a game for adults. See More

Specs

Genre:Adventure, Narrative, Survival Horror

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Stellar voice acting brings the characters to life

Voice actors deliver their lines with a lot of emotion, never feeling forced or fake. This excellent acting really helps draw you into the story and its characters. There's a lot of great chemistry between the various voice actors as well, resulting in conversations that flow well and sound very natural. See More

Top Con

Some obnoxious quicktime events

While this game is almost fully story based, there are still some fairly long and annoying quicktime events during action sequences. There are a few in particular that feel like they drag on a bit too long, and if you hit the wrong key/button at any point, you'll have to restart the event. See More

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A huge amount of replayability

Resembling an interactive novel, TWD: S2 plays out as a series of dialogue choices or decisions that result in specific actions. It's pretty interesting to replay the game many times and choose all the different ways of handling situations just to see how they play out. See More

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Choice of protagonist increases emotional impact

Viewing the story through the eyes of Clementine, a young child from the first season, is an interesting choice and makes some of the decisions you have to make even more heartbreaking. Not only is she growing up, she is growing up in the midst of a brutal zombie apocalypse where survival is rough, and life or death choices have to be made on the fly. Experiencing some of the game's situations from the viewpoint a young girl make them even more disturbing and troubling, increasing their emotional impact. See More

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Dynamic and impactful decisions

Surviving in the midst of a zombie apocalypse is hard, and oftentimes decisions will require you to make heart-wrenching choices to progress the story. In most cases, there are no easy or pleasant solutions to most of the scenarios the story places you in. However every choice you make, be it through dialogue or an action, will influence the story playing out in a new way. Characters will also remember your past interactions with them, which results in the story playing out in dynamic ways. For example, at times you can choose whether or not to help other characters. If you do, they may remember your kindness later in the game. If you don't, they may not trust you in the long run. Characters also remember your dialogue choices, and it will always influence later events. See More

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Gripping and emotional story

TWD: Season 2 continues the story about the struggle to survive during a brutal zombie apocalypse. You play as Clementine, a young girl from the first season, who is growing up in a cruel world. Food and resources are scarce, and people will do whatever they feel they must do to survive. Not only are the hordes of zombies a constant threat, but people are also dangerous with hidden motives. The story does a really good job showcasing the lengths people will go to to survive, and constantly offers up interesting and tough decisions for you to make. It hits on every emotional level. There are moments of horror, sadness, tragedy, and even a little humor thrown in. Through meaningful dialogue and character interactions, the game is able to flawlessly switch gears between them creating a very gripping and emotional story. See More

Catherine

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Unique soundtrack with rock songs and remixes of classical music

The game's music is a special blend of sounds that all work well together. Fast-paced, frantic stages have rock music with catchy electronica influences. The more serious stages and story moments have cool modern-day remixes of old classics, like the familiar third movement of "Funeral March", and William Tell's Overtures, "The Storm" and "The Ranz des Vaches". Even if you can't remember the songs by name, hearing their renditions in Catherine will probably jog your memory. These tracks really heighten the energy and the drama as you play. See More

Top Con

Might be too hard for players who don't normally play puzzle games

If you're thinking of getting Catherine as your first puzzle game, then you may want to reconsider. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, the game is really tough and tricky to figure out. The hardest part is that you don't have the luxury of time to observe things and find a way forward: you have to keep making snap decisions, one after the other, for several minutes at a time, otherwise you'll fall to your death. The most difficult optional content is also pretty grueling even for the most seasoned veterans. This is definitely one of those games that you play when you want to push yourself with new challenges. See More

Specs

Genre:Puzzle, Platformer, Horror

Co-Op:2 Player Local

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Your choices lead to multiple different endings

Playing as Vincent Brooks, a hopeless thirty-something man who's unhappy with his life, your decisions throughout the game determine how he turns out in the end. The main drama centers around his indecision to marry his steady, by-the-books girlfriend, Katherine, and his affair with the spontaneous and sexy young woman named Catherine. You can choose if Vincent stays with Katherine or Catherine, or if he goes off on his own way and leaves them both behind. The ways each of these endings play out are all unique and vastly different from each other, so it can be pretty fun to do multiple playthroughs in order to see them all. See More

Top Con

Repetitive sound effects can get annoying

There's one small nitpick that can grow to be incredibly irritating as you play. Every time you move a block and connect it to another one by one of its edges, a female announcer says the word "EDGE" in a robotic way. This would be fine every once in a while, except this happens constantly as you situate blocks so that their edges connect for you to climb on top of them. Playing every single stage forces you to hear the same "EDGE" spam from the announcer over and over again. It's prolific enough to have turned into a running joke within the Catherine community online, but it's still really annoying. See More

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Great cast of characters that deal with real-life struggles

You can get to know a colorful cast of characters aside from Katherine and Catherine. Every day, Vincent hangs out at a bar called the Stray Sheep where he and his friends drink together and commiserate about their uneventful lives. He can also go talk to other patrons of the bar who have their own problems, and possibly motivate them to change, like two different womanizers who had abusive pasts, a journalist who helped drive a celebrity to commit suicide, and a rich man whose parents won't let him marry his lower class lover. They all deal with some pretty mature and serious issues, but if you choose to help them out, there's usually a light at the end of the tunnel. See More

Top Con

A lot of your choices boil down to binary decisions

In the end, the decisions you make aren't all that robust. Most of the choices you make happen in between stages where a narrator asks you certain questions, like whether you personally think it's okay to cheat in relationships. Your responses are usually just yes or no options, which is pretty black-and-white. These choices affect a morality meter that determines which ending you get, but because of how binary your decisions are, you never really get a sense that the system is accurate or insightful. The meter and the questions themselves are just okay, though your mileage will vary on how you feel about them. See More

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Challenging puzzles that constantly make you think on the spot

Catherine is uniquely challenging in the way it blends puzzle-platforming with horror elements. Each stage you encounter is a visualization of the main protagonist Vincent's "nightmare": they're a series of connecting blocks that you push and pull in order to reach the very top and escape from the madness. There are all sorts of different blocks, like ice blocks that cause you to slip and fall, bomb blocks that explore after a short time, spike blocks that shoot out traps to kill you if you stand on top of them for too long, and many more. And the kicker is that you have limited time, since the blocks gradually fall away to an abyss, keeping you scrambling to stay ahead of the puzzles. You have to be quick on your toes in order to figure out a way forward without letting the ground fall from underneath you. This chasing dynamic adds to the nightmarish quality of the stages, giving you an extra push to think strategically in the shortest amount of time possible. See More

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Horrifying boss designs with symbolism relevant to the story

The boss designs are clever in how accurate they are. Since they're part of Vincent's nightmares that plague him about his guilt over Katherine and Catherine, the symbolism fits right in with this theme. The boss "fights" themselves involve the boss at the very bottom of the stage chasing you and manipulating certain blocks to slow you down. One of the bosses is a mutated version of Katherine in a wedding dress, another is a disfigured toddler representing Katherine's desire to have kids with Vincent, and others are certain NSFW depictions of body parts. They're over-the-top on purpose, instilling a shocking fear that makes you want to get away from the boss chasing you and reach the end as soon as possible. See More

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Stylized, artful cutscenes, menus, and imagery

The art style in Catherine is really cool in all the ways it pops out at you. The black and pink motifs are a clear running theme, showing up everywhere from the game's logo, to the menus, and the UI. Cutscenes have a neat anime aesthetic that help them stand out more. You can also find the game's ample imagery and symbolism everywhere, both obvious and subtle, such as the male and female signs, and the puns on "counting sheep in your sleep" with the characters who become sheep in Vincent's dreams as well as the bar named the Stray Sheep. The visuals are all creative with a lot of love and care that went into them. See More

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

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Open, hand-crafted world

Unlike the first Pillars game, which was a linear set of explorable regions, Deadfire offers up the whole world for your adventures. You'll be exploring anywhere you want right from the beginning. The best part is, nothing is procedurally generated or random. Every map, enemy placement, and interaction is carefully hand-crafted and intentional. This allows for a more organic adventure that doesn't feel forced or suffer from bad placement. See More

Top Con

Crafting is useless

Crafted potions, traps, and bombs are very weak and ineffective in combat. It's possible to succeed in combat without them, so there's really no point in crafting or using them to begin with. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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True freedom of choice in how you handle quests

Quests can be completed in multiple ways, depending on how you want to approach them. You're able to tackle quests in a multitude of interesting ways such as sheer brute force, stealth, diplomacy, and more. For example, if you need to get a key off an NPC you can either fight them, try to steal the key, or even talk them into giving to you. Depending on how you build the skills of each member of your party, the possibilities for completing quests are almost endless. See More

Top Con

Combat is too easy

Most common enemies pose little to no challenge. It's very easy to become overpowered and simply steamroll through packs of mobs. There is an option to pause the live action and ponder your next move in combat, but it's rarely ever needed or utilized, except on the highest difficulty setting. Note: At the time of this writing, the devs have promised a future patch to rebalance the combat difficulty. See More

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It's exciting to commandeer your own pirate ship

While your ship is mainly used to explore and hop from island to island, it goes well beyond that. Seeing another ship on the seas and attacking it (or being attacked by it) in naval combat gets you to you fight to make sure your boat stays afloat. Being out on the ocean can spark a whole bunch of different random encounters with hostile forces. You can also assign your party members to various positions such as navigation, cannons, and more depending on their unique skillsets. Depending on their skills, different party members will have various benefits when assigned to different positions such as better accuracy or steering capabilities. You never know what situations you'll find yourself in or what islands you'll discover when you're traveling the high seas, making it a pretty fun and exciting experience. See More

Top Con

Questing becomes unrewarding

It's easy to become level capped about 75% into the game, making quests somewhat meaningless as you'll get no experience reward for completing them. See More

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Strategic combat

Pausing the combat action between every swing of your sword or winding up of a spell can lead to really some really strategic play as you plan each and every move. Positioning your party or deciding what actions to take can be handled with a lot of thought behind it. Additionally, all of your units can be scripted individually to do things like attack, heal, or use a spell when certain conditions are met. This means your healers will only cast their healing spells when actually needed, or your mages will only use a devastating spell at just the right time. From start to finish, this full control over the combat helps it to feel more like an intricate puzzle beaten with brains and awareness, rather than a button mashing frenzy. See More

Top Con

Unfocused storytelling

Rather than focusing on stopping the god you set out to destroy, much of your time will be spent helping side characters and running errands for the three main factions. Most of the game is devoted to these side quests/objectives and only a handful of these have any noticeable effect on the main storyline progression. See More

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Dynamic roleplaying opportunities

Your skills and character stats influence every dialogue choice, interaction, and even how NPCs react to you. The world around you dynamically adjusts and changes based on how you're building your character and who you choose to recruit to your party. When interacting with NPCs, you're presented with unique dialogue options or opportunities based on your skills and reputation. Perhaps one NPC that would have given you a quest doesn't trust you anymore based on an action you took previously in the game. Or maybe you're good at stealth, so you are asked to carry out a sneaky operation. If your diplomacy is high, you can even talk your way out fights or help NPCs resolve their problems without violence. Sometimes, something as simple as being a certain race or hailing from a certain place will change the way you are treated or the quests you are asked to complete. You or your party's background might even mean the difference between an NPC being a friend or foe. All of this opens to the door to some really immersive role playing opportunities where you can really feel the weight of your decisions and how you choose to flesh out your stats. See More

Mass Effect 3

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Memorable cast of authentic characters

Mass Effect 3 has an amazing cast of both human and alien characters who feel like real people. While just about any NPC you meet is fantastic, your squad members are the ones that stand out the most. They all have backstories and traits that are believable and natural. Their personalities shine through the most during story missions that are relevant to their own personal arcs, where you get to help them reach their longtime goals. Your engineer squadmate, Tali, returns in Mass Effect 3 to join your team. She's a quarian: an alien species forced to wear full-body suits to survive environments other than their home planet. During missions with Tali, you help her reclaim her home planet from dangerous robotic enemies called the geth. This once-impossible goal of hers culminates into an emotional conclusion that changes depending on what you decide. Another returning character is Liara, your asari scientist teammate who offers helpful advice for your missions. She's more certain of herself in Mass Effect 3, having grown out of her shell and matured from her shy, socially awkward traits in the first game. You also get to see a finale with what happens with Liara's home planet, along with all the ways this affects her character for better or for worse. Getting to know everyone through dialogue, squad banter, and story moments is great on its own, but seeing how they've all grown and changed across the trilogy is a truly unique experience. See More

Top Con

The human villains are poorly-written

Mass Effect 3's human villains are more of a joke than anything. Their motivations don't always make sense and they only seem to keep getting in your way for the sake of drama. This is most annoying during scripted story moments where they're suddenly able to overpower you and your team for no real reason. The game's story would have been better off without these certain villains altogether. See More

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Third-Person Shooter

Co-Op:4 Player Online

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Great third-person shooting combat and gun variety

The combat in Mass Effect 3 feels great to play. Taking out groups of enemies is fun because of all the ways you can change up your gameplay. There are lots of different loadouts to choose from and ways to customize your build with components, such as having an assault rifle that tears through armor, or adding elemental effects like ice to your shotgun to freeze enemies in place. Customizing your sniper rifle just right, for example, to decapitate an enemy from as far away as possible is very satisfying. Combat here is the best it's ever been in the trilogy, improving a lot over the clunky and unresponsive mechanics from the first game. See More

Top Con

Horde mode multiplayer can quickly get stale

The multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 is a lot of fun at first, but this doesn't last for long. You play with a team of up to three other players against AI of the different enemy factions from single player. Even though you get to unlock lots of unique characters and weapons, it's the same type of horde mode gameplay over and over. You may find yourself getting bored of the ten waves of enemies after a while. See More

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Your choices have true consequences on the story

Your choices have direct consequences on how the story plays out. If you carried over your save files from Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, then you get to see how each of your decisions impact the finale here in Mass Effect 3. Even if you haven't played the first two games, the choices in this game are still impressive because their large scale and high stakes. It's up to you to choose between groups of your comrades who oppose each other, to stop or to encourage your longtime team members to sacrifice themselves for a good cause, and to decide the fates of entire galactic species, Your choices truly matter and manage to leave long-lasting emotional impacts, encouraging you to play the game again to see what happens with different outcomes. See More

Top Con

Story leans too heavily on an unimaginative plot device

It's disappointing that the big finale to defeat the all-powerful Reapers relies on a plot device. This MacGuffin-like device is boring and feels way too convenient, like the writers ran out of better ideas. It's not all that creative and feels anti-climactic, mostly because it comes out of nowhere in Mass Effect 3 with no mention of it whatsoever in the first two games. See More

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Good romance subplots

The romance subplots in Mass Effect 3 are very well-done. If you romanced someone in the first Mass Effect and/or in Mass Effect 2, then those stories continue here in Mass Effect 3. There are certain consequences for being unfaithful where your partner will confront you or the person you're cheating with in a heated showdown. Sticking with one person for the whole game -- or perhaps the whole trilogy -- rewards you with a romantic scene near the end of the story. There are also more scenes that you get with them right before the final battle and in some of the game's DLC that are really special and memorable. A lot of care and attention went into these subplots, giving you the chance to see each of the characters in a new light. See More

Top Con

The ending is unsatisfying and lacks closure

Even with the free Extended Cut DLC that expands on the ending, Mass Effect 3's conclusion still falls short of expectations. Commander Shepard and his/her squad are denied a satisfying ending no matter which path you choose. For a series that features such incredible characters, it really stings that you don't get to see everyone have a proper farewell. See More

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You can customize your protagonist Commander Shepard

There are lots of ways to make Commander Shepard feel like your own character. The character creator at the start of a new game lets you change all sorts of options, from your hair, to your skin color, the shape of your nose, mouth, and ears, and so much more. Or, if you prefer, you can simply stick with the default male or female Shepard. You also get to pick which class you want to be for combat: soldier, infiltrator, vanguard, adept, or sentinel, each with their own unique abilities, like the adept's helpful "magic spells" and the infiltrator's specialty with sniper rifles. You can role-play as Shepard however you want, with plenty of options to customize your looks and your combat specialties for whichever role suits you the most. See More

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