Recent reviews by Substance

I wanted to like this, but I found the camera to be a constant problem in multiplayer. Enemies are always just slightly off screen. Reloading is a punishing chore. The controls are a bit cumbersome. Special powers can only be accessed by strings of directional inputs, then throwing a beacon, then waiting for the delivery. Visually it's cluttered and difficult to parse, especially in a 4 player game with more intense swarms of enemies.

Excellent PvP arena game. NOT A MOBA. No minion farming, buying items, or pushing lanes. Just pure 2v2 or 3v3 teamfighting. Ultimate/EX charge mechanic feels like Overwatch meets Street Fighter. Matches are quick and intense.

Definitely worth your time if you like PvP!

Metal Gear Appetizer.

Ground Zeroes is pretty much a demo that acts as a prologue for the upcoming title The Phantom Pain. The main mission is over quickly, but you're encouraged to re-deploy to the same base on side missions or to explore the area for secrets and collectables.

Fans of the series will find a very bite-sized example of the open-ended gameplay coming in The Phantom Pain. You can bet there will be a huge map with several bases like this for Snake to infiltrate at his leisure.

A fun and unique tactical battle system wrapped in a harsh Oregon Trail-esque adventure.

Solid writing, wonderful hand-drawn art, excellent (though scarce) VO, and a beautiful soundtrack elevate The Banner Saga from an admirable RPG to a living storybook that leaves you wanting more.

A few frustrating sequences that felt hard for hardness' sake, but overall a fun and worthwhile retro platformer.

None of the puzzles in Brothers are particularly mind-bending, but there's a simple joy in the execution, and the rewards consistently outweigh the effort.

Beautiful and relaxing.

I thought the appeal might be entirely wrapped up in the novelty of the fiction, but Papers, Please actually offers some fun and unique gameplay with surprising depth and excellent pacing.

At its core, this is a classic Tomb Raider with lots of jumping, climbing, and puzzles puntuated by brief shootouts. They also took just about every modern feature you can imagine (QTE, cover system, stealth/takedowns, sandboxy exploration, fast travel, optional challenge quests) and managed to work them in gracefully.

Looks, sounds and plays great. Definitely worth it.

A surprisingly solid action game with fantastic co-op mechanics and interesting puzzles. Probably not worth playing solo, but snag it up if you're looking for something to play with a partner.

Extremely heavy-handed intro/tutorial missions, sloppy and unforgiving "stealth" mechanics, dark color pallete making it nearly impossible to actually see anything that isn't glowing neon, and - worst of all - unsatisfying weapons with poor hit feedback.

I really wanted to like this game, I am 100% on board with the theme here, but it ended up being a disappointing, un-fun headache that no amount of cheesy one-liners could overcome.