IGN Game Reviews – Spoken Edition

With Saturn looming above me and the labyrinth of a sprawling space station below me, I can't stop thinking about Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Dreadnought’s space combat is literally worlds away from the galleons and sabers of Ubisoft's pirate epic, but it delivers the same nautical warfare satisfaction when I pull up one of the hulking titular ships alongside another dreadnought and let the broadside cannons erupt in a blaze of glory.

As a puzzle game, Bridge Constructor Portal comes as a breath of fresh air. Its Lemmings-like rules are simple and intuitive, but mesh together to create a lot of interesting depth and challenge. Plus, getting to revisit Aperture Laboratories in some form for one of the few times since 2011’s Portal 2 was a welcome treat.

The almost entirely sparse and dull content of Curse of Osiris for Destiny 2 makes it one of the most disappointing Destiny additions to date. It includes a brief two- to three-hour campaign with a hollow story, a tiny public space with little to do, and two new multiplayer maps (three on PlayStation 4). Its only saving grace is the fantastic Raid Lair activity, which offers real challenges, unique puzzles, and high-level loot.

Beating a level in Opus Magnum is just the beginning. Sure, I built a machine to assemble that level’s target product, but how do I make it better? How do I make that machine of pistons, moving arms, and base components cheaper, smaller, or more efficient? It’s questions like this that literally kept me up at night, and what makes Opus Magnum one of the most captivating puzzle games I’ve ever played.

Despite all its acclaim, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series that ran from 2004 to 2009 has been severely underrepresented when it comes to quality games. Similarly, recent choices for space-based strategy games have been limited too, especially if you aren’t looking for a 4X experience. But Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock solves all of these issues single-handedly, with tactical-strategy gameplay featuring Cylons, Vipers, and Battlestars.

When I was a kid, I had a pair of creepy, reclusive neighbors who lived next door and greeted everyone with a sneer. My imagination spent a lot of time constructing what kind of weird stuff might actually be going on in their shuttered, suburban home - so the premise of Hello Neighbor was enticing because it was practically out of my autobiography.

If The Champions’ Ballad is indeed the last new content we see for Breath of the Wild, it doesn’t feel like much of a send-off. This web of new overworld trials and Shrines is strung together by some fairly throwaway backstory, and its rewards are minimal. And yet, as it came to a close, it was what I'd played, not the story I'd been told, that shone through. I'd just been given 8 more stellar hours of one of the best games ever made.

After releasing an eerie 30 second teaser during Thursday night’s Video Game Awards, FromSoftware quickly drummed up fan speculation as to what their next game might be. While Hidetaka Miyazaki, President of From and all around Souls guru, has stated multiple times that he’s uninterested in revisiting the Souls series for the time being, that doesn’t necessarily rule it out entirely. Here are our best guesses as to what “Shadows Die Twice.

I mostly enjoyed my time with The Surge (read the full review) when it came out back in May, and I’m glad to have an excuse to jump back into its bleak-yet-bright sci-fi world. While the A Walk in the Park DLC might not add much to or dramatically change up the gameplay, it offers more of the same solid combat and exploration in a colorfully creepy new setting.

When I initially reviewed Rocket League in on PlayStation 4 and PC in 2015, and Xbox One in 2016, I gave it an 8.0 for “Great.” Here’s what I said then: “Whether it’s online casual or ranked matches, no-pressure exhibitions, split-screen local co-op with up to four players, or an intense 36-week season mode, Rocket League is all about getting into the next throttle-pounding match as fast as possible.

So far, the most common way to adapt an existing first-person shooter to VR has been to turn it into a shooting gallery, where you hold still and shoot targets as they pop up. Doom VFR is not that, at all. Instead of taking that route or converting the original version (as Bethesda did with Skyrim VR), id built VFR from the ground up as a new game that bravely embraces Doom’s love of movement and momentum.

Like so many games, Seven: The Days Long Gone sounds like a great idea on paper. Take the action-RPG gameplay of Diablo, give plenty of options for stealth, and add jumping and climbing to the mix for an acrobatic flourish. It just fails to stick the landing. Seven introduces itself with a lengthy cutscene that describes its world and politics without ever giving you a reason to care. Then it unceremoniously drops you into a brief tutorial which introduces Teriel, the main character.

This is a spoiler-free review of Knightfall: “You’d Know What To Do.” History’s Knightfall delivers a fascinating story centered around the Knights Templar and their quest to find the Holy Grail in the early 14th century. Like the network’s flagship series Vikings, Knightfall proves why History needs to develop more original dramas. Knightfall goes big and bold right from the beginning with a large-scale battle set in the city of Acre.

[Editor’s Note: As we frequently disclose, Battlefront 2’s single-player campaign story was co-written by former IGN editor Mitch Dyer. In effort to put forward the most impartial review possible, our review is written by Tom Marks, who joined IGN after Mitch left and, in fact, has never even met him.] Like a Jedi with hatred inside them, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is its own worst enemy.

Not unlike a fine stew, Battle Chef Brigade could only be as good as the ingredients it’s cooked with. Fortunately, a hearty mixture of puzzles, platforming, and even a dash of visual novel-style storytelling help keep this melange fresh most of the way through its six lengthy courses. Despite all the other diverse activities involved, Battle Chef Brigade’s engaging match 3-style cooking puzzles are your main means of progression through the campaign.