Video Game Review: State of Decay

While melee combat is tight and simplistic, shooting lacks precision. Holding down the left trigger draws your gun and provides an over-the-shoulder view with a reticule to aim. It’s a traditional setup, however — in what was likely a decision to simulate inexperienced firearm users — it’s not easy to dispatch groups of zombies with bullets. Combine that with the tendency for gunfire to attract more enemies and I found myself using guns about once for every 25 melee encounters.

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Video Game Review: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Aiming and movement are both responsive — though the default settings felt loose and ended up needing adjusting — and once we got the hang of it we had little trouble pulling off those satisfying headshots. Racking up kills fills up your concentration meter, which can then be activated by tapping the right bumper. Doing this slows time and turns your enemies red — it’s loads of fun to do, and it becomes a necessary companion when the odds are stacked against you.

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Video Game Review: Metro: Last Light

That being said, two minor issues are worth noting. First, there are instances throughout the game when you’ll come up behind an enemy and the option to kill or knock them out won’t appear, instead leaving the controls to execute their normal function (stabbing and reloading). I’m not sure what the cause is, but it’s annoying when it comes up. Second, the game allows you to keep pulling the trigger without ammo in the gun instead of automatically reloading. It’s not a flaw, per se, it’s just something uncommon to be aware of.

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Video Game Review: Soul Sacrifice

Although it works fairly well, there will be times when you’ll toggle between spell sets without knowing it because once you defeat an enemy you’re left with two choices: save it (left bumper) or sacrifice it (right bumper). With the right bumper pulling double duty you can accidentally switch while sacrificing a fallen adversary, and as a result you may, for example, heal yourself instead of firing a projectile. This is mostly an inconvenience except in the cases when your offering is nearly exhausted — then you can actually break a spell and lose use of it for the duration of the fight.

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Video Game Review: Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut

During the driving segments of the game, I’m afraid there’s no refinement in controls good enough to make the driving any fun — the cars are extremely touchy and seem to not have power steering, as soon as you stop turning, the wheels snap straight-forward again, making a simple 90-degree turn somewhat of a risky chore.

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Video Game Review: The Tyranny of King Washington — The Redemption DLC

The final showdown with Washington is rather similar to your earlier skirmish as the whole thing is basically rock-paper-scissors re-imagined as wolf-eagle-bear. Here you’ll need to use one of your animal abilities at a time to penetrate the King’s supernatural defenses. The game is incredibly forgiving — so much so that I don’t think you can actually be defeated, only delayed. This fight gives way to a brief explanation that ties the DLC in with the main storyline, but it’s a pretty loose connection at best.

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