Review Archives (All Reviews)
You are currently looking through all reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by Lewis and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.
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System Shock review (PC)Reviewed on July 08, 2010It's true that the interface is clumsy, with far too much dragging and dropping going on. But away from the peripherals, here remains a game of survival horror resource management, careful RPG stat-planning, and basic but tactical first-person action. It weaves these threads together into something so wholly representative of developer Looking Glass' style that, even above Ultima Underworld and Thief, you'd point to System Shock as the prime example of what this wonderful studio created. |
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Metro 2033 review (X360)Reviewed on March 25, 2010Developed by 4A Games, a splinter of Ukranian studio GSC Game World, Metro 2033 is nothing like Stalker. That's one of the most important things to remember when entering its dismal tunnel network, or sprinting across its harsh, destroyed surface world. It may share some pretty heavy thematic elements with that series, and it might emerge from the same brains, but Metro 2033 is its own game: more bombastic shoot-'em-up than slow-burning, open-world survival. |
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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 5 - Rise of the Pirate God review (PC)Reviewed on March 17, 2010It's not a classic. It's still a game whose intricacies are likely to be forgotten within months. It's probably not even the best of the series, all considered. What it does have, though, is Tales' strongest moment, across all of the games. |
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Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem review (GCN)Reviewed on January 03, 2010The idea of survival horror is a fascinating one. While films are usually identified by aesthetic and emotive theme - fantasy, or action, or science-fiction - games tend to be categorised by activity. Do you shoot in this game? Then it's a shooting game. Do you strategise in it? Then it's a strategy. Videogame genre naming conventions leave very little room for thematics. Maybe that's to be expected. Games are, after all, primarily about doing stuff. |
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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 - The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood review (PC)Reviewed on November 17, 2009It’s rarely a chore to play through. The short length helps that, and the restrictive nature of the game world and its neatly intertwined objectives only contributes to the tightness. It raises plenty of smiles. But when it’s essentially becoming the same episode stuck on repeat ad nauseum, how much praise is it reasonable to lavish? |
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Minerva: Metastasis review (PC)Reviewed on October 08, 2009It proved fitting that, by the end of Minerva: Metastasis, the glare of its initial daylight had given way to a cold dusk, the sun barely clinging on to the horizon. When I emerged from the game, exhausted and blinking, it turned out the same was true in real life. Four hours had disappeared, and it was night time. |
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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 3 - Lair of the Leviathan review (PC)Reviewed on October 08, 2009The simplicity of most of the tasks means Lair of the Leviathan ends up being a little shorter than the rest of Tales thus far, but it's not really an issue when the episode feels so well directed, tight and polished. It's the most solid of the series, certainly, and if Telltale can maintain this level of quality while ramping the humour back up to its highest standards, the final two episodes might as well set sail for the shores of greatness. |
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Enter the Story: The Divine Comedy review (PC)Reviewed on September 21, 2009 |
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Batman: Arkham Asylum review (X360)Reviewed on August 29, 2009Batman's a game with a few problems, yet it remains utterly captivating throughout the journey. Every inch of Arkham Island, every character nuance, every animation and every gameplay mechanism has been refined to a ludicrous extent. Every transition between styles is utterly seamless. It's a cohesive, captivating world, a tremendously engaging mix of action and sneaking, and one of the most exciting games of the year. |
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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 2 - Siege of Spinner Cay review (PC)Reviewed on August 19, 2009It's a thoroughly good, thoroughly traditional adventure game that's sure to please fans of the original Monkey Island series and adventure-savvy newcomers alike. It's nothing remotely special, but it's unlikely that was ever its intention. Judged for what it is, it's a solid, entertaining and often exceptionally amusing way to pass a couple of afternoons. |
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Killing Floor review (PC)Reviewed on August 15, 2009Killing Floor's amateur origins are uncomfortably clear, and there's no doubting that a little more polish would have gone a long way. Still, when you find yourself scurrying between cover in an open field at night, carefully aiming for the heads of a stream of mutated foes, before someone chimes in on the radio and makes a gag about liking "the big ones" the best, you'll understand. For all its quirks, inconsistencies and annoyances, you'll likely find something to love. |
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Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man review (PC)Reviewed on August 06, 2009It's never overtly bad. It's just grossly unambitious, lacking in any real flair, and growing stale at an alarming rate. So while Grand Adventures has been a fun ride, it's for the best that it's reached its conclusion. It just could have done to finish last month instead. |
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Resident Evil 4 review (PC)Reviewed on July 27, 2009Resident Evil 4 might be a carefully balanced, ingeniously designed and admirably self-assured game, but on the PC it's a woeful, miserable, inconceivable mess of code. It's very possibly, depending on your mindset, nestled within the highest echelon of videogame design - but it's an experience tailored only for the consoles. On a computer, it's often barely playable, which is more troubling than a village full of zombified religious extremists could ever be. |
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Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal review (PC)Reviewed on July 08, 2009Still, this rebirth is in the hands of the adept Telltale Games, who recently revived Sam & Max, brought Strong Bad to tremendous interactive life, and rendered the quaint British tales of Wallace & Gromit in a mostly pleasing fashion. Aside from the original team, if anyone could successfully revitalise the Monkey Island franchise, it's these guys. |
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Trine review (PC)Reviewed on July 07, 2009Intelligent but unpretentious, quaint yet brutal, Trine is regularly an absolute delight. Delve into the options menu and you can set it up for co-operative play - which allows all three players in the world at once - adding another level to the already wonderful puzzle-solving. But even alone, Trine offers five hours of invigorating, exciting, hybridised and enormously beautiful gaming. For a relatively low-key offering, it's brimming with confidence in its image and approach. That's what makes Trine so darling, even when that skeleton gets stuck on a rock while a hundred bats eat you to death. |
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Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: Muzzled! review (PC)Reviewed on June 23, 2009Which is why Muzzled! feels like such an important addition to the series. Refining almost all the wavering half-problems of the previous incarnations, it's fresh, exciting and gleefully silly. |
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Red Faction: Guerrilla review (X360)Reviewed on June 12, 2009A vast game of utterly mad possibilities. There's not enough of a culture for Guerrilla to be proclaimed a true masterpiece, or even a revolution, but it's not a long way off. Rarely has open-world mayhem been so invigorating, so satisfying and hilarious. Far and away the best in the series so far, Guerrilla is the absolute statement of Volition's explosive plan - and Red Faction would struggle to return to its linear routes after this outstanding effort. |
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Deus Ex review (PC)Reviewed on May 20, 2009Deus Ex knows what it is. It's a computer game, through and through. There's a reason why the new big-name releases boast about multiple routes and character-shaping; in-depth, branching stories; moral and practical dilemmas. This is that reason. And, in acknowledging how games work and confidently playing to such potential, it shines. |
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Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: The Last Resort review (PC)Reviewed on May 08, 2009There's a slightly uncomfortable predictability about The Last Resort, this second instalment of Telltale Games' Wallace & Gromit adaptation. The first episode, Fright of the Bumblebees, impressed with its faithful aesthetic and witty dialogue, but the mundanity of its first half left a little to be desired. In The Last Resort, you'll spend the first hour collecting things, and the second hour on customer service duty. Hmm. |
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Braid review (PC)Reviewed on April 26, 2009Heaven forbid I have to move to the left while writing this review. Over the past few days, I've become so wrapped up in Braid's warped fourth dimension that I can't get these crazy time laws out of my head. If I move to the left, I'll lose everything, erasing my progress as the timeline reverses. That said, if deadline looms too close, maybe I can wear my special ring and slow down the clock. I could always rewind if something went awry... |
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