Recent reviews by QuinlanPower

Review: Hogwarts Legacy
Score: 8.7 / 10

Hogwarts Legacy offers a vast amount of content, which, while occasionally repetitive, remains engaging as a complete experience. The game is at its best when it leans into small details and strong visual presentation, delivering a highly immersive and atmospheric journey through the wizarding world. In many ways, the game comes close to being exceptional, yet it ultimately feels like a diamond that has not been fully polished.

The world design and attention to detail are clearly the result of significant effort and ambition. Exploring Hogwarts and its surroundings is consistently enjoyable, and the game’s visual spectacle plays a major role in sustaining immersion. The overall experience is smooth and rewarding when systems function as intended.

Unfortunately, the game’s weakest aspect is its lack of sufficient playtesting. Hogwarts Legacy suffers from a high number of technical issues across multiple areas, including audio, lighting, graphics, memory handling, and general stability. Certain quests can be completed repeatedly due to scripting errors, while at other times progression is halted entirely by doors or interactions that simply fail to trigger. These issues disrupt flow and break immersion far more often than they should in a production of this scale.

From the perspective of an experienced player with extensive exposure to completed games and testing environments, it is clear that many of these problems could have been resolved with additional quality assurance passes. Some mechanical inconsistencies can be attributed to limitations inherent to the Unreal Engine, particularly in how certain gameplay systems interact. These engine-level constraints are not necessarily the developers’ fault, yet their impact on gameplay is noticeable.

Despite its flaws, Hogwarts Legacy remains a strong and enjoyable title. The underlying design, narrative framing, and world-building succeed in delivering a compelling experience that is accessible and engaging regardless of player background or identity. With more thorough testing and refinement, the game could have reached a truly outstanding level.

Conclusion
Hogwarts Legacy is an ambitious and visually impressive game that delivers a memorable experience despite its technical shortcomings. While insufficient playtesting prevents it from achieving its full potential, the core design and atmosphere make it well worth playing. It stands as a very good game that narrowly misses excellence due to issues that could have been addressed with additional polish.

Review: Sniper Elite 5
Score: 8.8 / 10

Sniper Elite 5 is a tactical stealth shooter that rewards patience,
planning, and precision.
Set during World War II, the game places the player in large, open-ended levels where reconnaissance, positioning, and timing are just as important as marksmanship.
After investing over 100 hours into the game, it becomes clear that Sniper Elite 5 is both highly engaging and genuinely enjoyable on multiple levels.

The core gameplay is exceptionally addictive. The maps are well designed, offering multiple approaches to objectives, and the overall pacing encourages thoughtful play rather than constant action.
The game succeeds in creating tension and satisfaction through long-range engagements, careful movement, and strategic elimination of enemies.

The most significant drawback, however, is the lack of thorough playtesting prior to release. The game frequently feels as though it was not fully polished. Numerous bugs are present, including instances where the player character clips into level geometry, becomes partially immobile while animations continue, or carries bodies in a broken state where the corpse appears invisible and cannot be dropped. These issues occur often enough to be noticeable and immersion-breaking.

There are also smaller but unfortunate inconsistencies in narrative and presentation. For example, characters with established backgrounds implying fluency in German occasionally pronounce German names incorrectly, defaulting to English pronunciation. While minor in isolation, these details stand out in a game that otherwise strives for authenticity.

Difficulty balance is another area with curious inconsistencies. The most enjoyable difficulty mode is Authentic, which offers a slower, more methodical experience. Ironically, lower difficulties such as Civilian (Very Easy) often feel more chaotic, with aggressive enemy AI attacking from all directions, while Authentic allows for calmer and more controlled encounters. Additionally, realism sometimes stretches credibility, as surviving direct hits from heavy weaponry undermines the intended authenticity of the mode.

This evaluation is intentionally limited to the single-player experience. Multiplayer and cooperative modes are excluded, as their performance and perceived quality are strongly affected by external factors such as network conditions, server stability, and latency. These variables fall outside the scope of the game’s core design and would not provide a consistent or objective basis for assessment within this review.

Despite these flaws, the game remains highly enjoyable. It is absolutely worth playing, provided one does not allow minor technical issues to overshadow the experience. That said, perfectionist players may find certain collectible challenges frustrating. Some Stone Eagles are hidden in such extreme and unintuitive locations that finding them without external assistance can take hours or even days, significantly harming motivation.

Overall, Sniper Elite 5 delivers a satisfying and memorable experience. The negative aspects stem almost exclusively from insufficient testing and rushed polishing rather than from flawed design. Having participated personally in multiple testing phases for games prior to release, it is evident that this title would have benefited from additional quality assurance time.

Conclusion Sniper Elite 5 is an excellent and highly engaging game that offers deep tactical gameplay and rewarding stealth mechanics. While technical issues and uneven difficulty balance detract from an otherwise strong experience, the game remains well worth playing. Its shortcomings are the result of rushed testing rather than poor design, making it a strong title that narrowly misses true excellence.

For reference, I have uploaded screenshots to my profile showcasing multiple bugs and engine-related issues observed during gameplay.

Review: Palia
Score: 7.9 / 10

Palia is a cozy life-simulation MMO that focuses on exploration, crafting, housing, and cooperation rather than competition. Players gather resources, hunt, fish, cook, build and customise their homes, and complete story-driven quests in a visually warm and inviting world. The game places strong emphasis on relaxation, creativity, and shared progression with other players.

From a gameplay perspective, Palia performs very well. Controls are responsive, camera behaviour is smooth, and both housing and item customisation systems are robust and intuitive. The overall interaction design feels polished, making moment-to-moment play consistently enjoyable. Tasks, story elements, and general progression are well structured and supported by clear, functional mechanics.

The game’s quests and narrative are engaging, and the combination of guided objectives with freeform activities creates a pleasant sense of flow. Movement and interaction feel natural, and the game succeeds in maintaining an immersive rhythm without overwhelming the player.

Technically, Palia is relatively stable. Only a small number of bugs are present, though some allow players to clip outside the main map or into environmental elements. These issues are noticeable but do not significantly disrupt the overall experience.

One of the more notable drawbacks relates to resource distribution. Certain fish and other collectibles appear too frequently in specific locations and time windows, reducing variety and diminishing the satisfaction of discovery. This issue is further amplified by the existence of third-party modifications that reveal exact spawn locations and timings. While these tools are reportedly permitted by the developers, they effectively undermine the intended gameplay loop and exploration-driven design. Although optional, their presence detracts from the game’s core philosophy.

Hunting and similar activities are enjoyable, and cooperative play with others is a clear strength. The shared world feels alive, and teamwork is both functional and rewarding. Visually, the game is beautiful, with evident care invested in environmental design, animation, and overall presentation. The developers’ attention to detail is apparent across mechanics, storytelling, and aesthetics.

That said, Palia is almost too engaging in the short term. The main content can be completed relatively quickly, after which players are largely left with home building and waiting for updates. The game currently lacks a strong long-term progression loop that would consistently motivate daily play. Additional cooperative activities or evolving endgame systems could significantly improve longevity.

As a free-to-play title, Palia is exceptionally generous. In-game purchases do not provide competitive advantages, and there is no player-versus-player component, rendering any notion of pay-to-win irrelevant. The monetisation model is fair and respectful, which is increasingly rare. It is difficult not to admire the developers’ decision to release such a polished experience for free, especially in contrast to many paid early access titles that offer far less while charging for unfinished products.

Conclusion
Palia is a beautiful, well-crafted, and genuinely enjoyable game that succeeds in delivering a relaxing and cooperative experience. While it currently lacks a strong long-term progression structure, its gameplay quality, visual design, and fair monetisation make it an outstanding free-to-play title. With continued development and expanded content, it has the potential to become something truly special.

Review: Worms Armageddon
Score: 6.6 / 10

Worms Armageddon is a classic turn-based artillery game in which teams of cartoonish worms battle each other across fully destructible 2D landscapes. Players take turns carefully positioning their worms, selecting from an extensive arsenal of weapons, and attempting to eliminate the opposing team through calculated shots and environmental destruction. Precision, timing, and a willingness to embrace chaos define the core gameplay.

The game is undeniably legendary and deeply nostalgic. Worms Armageddon represents the peak of the traditional 2D Worms formula and remains instantly recognisable decades after its release. The visual style and fundamental mechanics have aged relatively well, preserving the charm that made the series a cultural phenomenon.

That said, several aspects reveal the game’s age. Repetitive sound effects can become irritating during longer sessions, and the lack of a proper control configuration menu limits accessibility by modern standards. Over time, the experience may feel increasingly monotonous, as missions and matches follow a highly similar structure with limited mechanical variation.

Despite these shortcomings, Worms Armageddon excels as low-effort, “brain-off” entertainment. It is particularly well suited for casual play, offering simple but satisfying destruction and light tactical decision-making. There is an undeniable appeal in its straightforward design, allowing players to enjoy the game without cognitive overload.

Extended play sessions also highlight how easily time can slip away. Although individual missions may feel slow or repetitive, hours can pass almost unnoticed. In this sense, Worms Armageddon functions as an effective distraction-driven experience, where the repetitive loop becomes part of its appeal rather than a flaw for certain audiences.

Conclusion
Worms Armageddon remains a legendary and nostalgic title that has not entirely lost its appeal. While repetitive audio, dated control options, and eventual monotony limit its long-term engagement, it still delivers accessible and enjoyable gameplay. Best appreciated in short sessions, the game stands more as a monument to its era than as a fully modern experience.

Review: Still Life 2
Score: 2.8 / 10

Still Life 2 continues the theme of tracking a serial killer, but this time the experience is burdened by excessive micromanagement and a noticeable loss of narrative momentum. Compared to the original Still Life, this sequel is a significant disappointment.

One of the most immediate and disruptive issues is the camera system. Camera angles are frequently awkward, poorly chosen, and at times feel almost unworkable. These problems are compounded by technical instability, including lag and severe bugs. In some cases, progression occurs only through unintended glitches, such as transitioning between rooms by clipping through doors or ceilings rather than via intended interaction points.

While the underlying story has potential, it is constrained by an overly limited setting. Much of the game takes place in a single location, and progression is excessively rigid. Even the smallest detail must be manually interacted with in order to advance. For example, seeing a code or clue is not sufficient; it must be explicitly clicked to register as “noticed.” This design choice quickly becomes irritating and undermines the flow of investigation.

The introduction of an investigation kit for handling blood and other forensic samples is, in principle, a welcome addition. However, its implementation relies heavily on repetition. Analysing the same character’s blood and evidence multiple times, often for conclusions that are already obvious, adds little depth and instead contributes to a sense of padding.

Inventory management is another unnecessary complication. The game introduces a limited inventory system alongside designated storage points within the environment. This mechanic feels entirely redundant and often frustrating, adding micromanagement without meaningful benefit. While it is understandable that the protagonist cannot realistically carry unlimited items, the system as implemented detracts from gameplay rather than enhancing it.

Overall, the game struggles on multiple levels. Although the narrative remains connected to the first title, Still Life 2 falls short in terms of comfort, usability, and overall playability. Many tasks are disproportionately difficult and, in several cases, aggressively frustrating. Timed challenges further exacerbate this issue and can severely disrupt the investigative atmosphere.

Saving is manual and effectively mandatory after nearly every action. The game is prone to crashes, including complete freezes resulting in a black screen where only the mouse cursor and audio remain active. After one such crash occurring simply while moving between rooms, significant progress was lost, forcing a restart from a much earlier point.

From the perspective of an experienced player, Still Life 2 is one of those rare games where finishing it becomes a genuine question. Expectations of a meaningful continuation in the spirit of the original Still Life are replaced by an experience focused on examining a single house in extreme detail, inspecting every nail head and turning over every stone, often without a sense of reward.

Conclusion
Still Life 2 maintains narrative continuity with its predecessor but fails to deliver a satisfying or coherent gameplay experience. Poor camera design, technical instability, excessive micromanagement, and frustrating progression systems combine to create a deeply disappointing sequel.

Review: Still Life
Score: 6.4 / 10

Still Life is a narrative-driven investigation game centred on tracking down a serial killer. The story is undeniably engaging and carries a strong sense of intrigue throughout. The protagonist’s behaviour, at times surprisingly naïve and impulsive, often resembles that of a defiant teenager. This may well be intentional, yet it can occasionally undermine the sense of professionalism one might expect from a lead investigator.

While the plot remains compelling, the moment-to-moment gameplay can become confusing. It is not uncommon to lose track of what needs to be done next. This issue has been addressed more successfully in the sequel, Still Life 2, where reviewing collected information more reliably guides the player forward. In the first title, however, progress sometimes requires extensive trial and error before clarity emerges.

The game world is highly restricted. No task is optional, and there are no branching paths or alternative solutions; instead, the player must follow the predetermined sequence exactly as designed. This rigidity becomes particularly frustrating during puzzle segments, where certain objects cannot be interacted with until very specific prerequisites have been met. Often, it feels as if the game expects the player to click around aimlessly until the correct trigger is found.

Still Life includes several internal mini-games. Some are reasonably engaging, but others are unexpectedly tedious, time-consuming, and at times so disproportionately difficult that they risk undermining the overall experience. Rather than offering a sequence of manageable challenges that reward the player with a sense of momentum, a few of these tasks become exercises in pure frustration.

Technical issues are also present. In the Steam version, certain sequences fail to register interaction points, causing players to search for the next transition or hotspot for extended periods. These bugs were not widely reported in the original CD-ROM release, which suggests that some issues may have emerged during the porting process.

Visually, the game offers a middle-of-the-road presentation for its age. Movement is somewhat stiff, with characters occasionally sliding into walls or navigating in straight automated paths that do not always reflect the environment’s geometry. Despite these limitations, the atmosphere remains strong enough to carry the experience.

Still Life is an interesting and often gripping title, yet one that demands patience. In several sections, searching online for solutions becomes almost necessary to preserve the enjoyment and prevent the more punishing puzzles from diminishing the overall experience.

Conclusion
Still Life is a memorable and engaging crime thriller with a strong narrative foundation, but it is held back by rigid design choices, uneven puzzle difficulty, and technical shortcomings. The story is worth experiencing, though players should be prepared for moments of frustration.

Review: Ranch Sim
Score: 5.8 / 10

Ranch Sim offers enjoyable pastime to a certain extent, and the core idea of the game – building and managing a farm – is genuinely appealing. The game is clearly under active development and has considerable potential, but the overall experience does not yet meet the criteria of a fully completed title. At this stage, I would categorise it most accurately as an Early Access game.

Structure and Gameplay
The building and interior design systems are unfortunately too limited. In particular, furnishing and fencing inside barn structures suffer from structural shortcomings, which makes the building process at times frustrating. The selection of materials, colours, and visual customization options is overly narrow, and players lack the freedom to modify the environment, houses, or interiors as they wish. Ready-made house packages also offer no room for alterations.

Technical Issues and Overall Experience
The quest structure is occasionally unclear, and vehicle behaviour on the map is unstable. Numerous visual bugs are present. The beginning of the game is engaging and promising, but the gameplay rather quickly shifts from enjoyable to burdensome, and the game loses its appeal fairly early on.

Conclusion
Ranch Sim is a good attempt and has the foundation for an enjoyable game, but the overall product is not finished. Development is clearly ongoing, and the potential is significant, yet the current version suffers from limited building features, technical problems, and an overall feeling of incompleteness.