The latest edition of the acclaimed UK gaming magazine EDGE is now with subscribers and Issue 389 contains a number of big reviews which include FromSoftware’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and Larian Studios massive RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3. The highest rated game in this month’s edition of EDGE is Baldur’s Gate 3, which is one of the few games the normally stringent magazine has awarded a perfect 10/10. You can check out summaries of all the reviews from EDGE #389 down below.
Baldur’s Gate 3 –10
Upon finishing a game such as this, there can be a feeling of listlessness, of not knowing what to do with yourself. That’s not the case here. As the credits roll, you’ll think less about the experience you had, and more about the one you didn’t. How would the adventure go if you made this decision, or played as that class? What would happen if you tried this, or did that? Baldur’s Gate 3 leaves you with as many ideas as it does memories. That, surely, is the soul of roleplaying.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon – 7
It’s no surprise that it has taken so long for FromSoftware to deliver this particular game at this particular moment. Armored Core VI is a project that must balance the needs of the series’ long-standing core audience with the hopeful expectations of the studio’s new and vast fanbase. Certainly, it provides exhilarating depths for those willing and sufficiently talented to reach them, but the game’s narrow and unforgiving constraints will repel far more than it entices.
Blasphemous 2 – 8
This is one of many flourishes Blasphemous 2 repurposes from its predecessor, yet it is no less satisfying for its familiarity. Rather than rest on its laurels, The Game Kitchen has expanded this foundation into something that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Castlevania series to which it is so indebted (even if it takes the idea of ‘bloody tears’ more literally than Konami). Our pilgrimage is one marked by the cuts and bruises we accumulate along the way, yet we find ourselves encouraged by a familiar mantra: how sweet the pain, indeed, when it is our own.
Fort Solis – 4
The central mystery is one of slow realisation rather than grand revelation, leading you to wonder if there’s a twist in store. Alas, while the final act does deliver a bona-fide surprise (one that fatally stretches your suspension of disbelief to snapping point), there is no sudden reconfiguring of expectations, nothing that changes the approximate understanding of events you probably had within the opening hour. As the credits roll, and we once again consider what Fort Solis is, the Steam blurb reminds us of another thing it isn’t. A “riveting thriller”, after all, requires thrills – and those, like the station’s employees, are conspicuous by their absence.
Immortals Of Aveum – 4
When one of these – unskippable, of course – cinematics is over and control is handed back to us, we make our way to the nearest ley line and pause, recalling that BioShock: Infinite’s skyrails did much more with a similar concept ten years ago. And herein lies Immortals’ most fundamental problem: Aveum’s skies might crackle with occult energy, but the game beneath them is distinctly lacking in real magic.
En Garde – 7
Still, if it doesn’t always satisfy the more animal parts of our brain, En Garde! keeps the higher functions entertained, and provides some solid laughs. Never underestimate the comedy value of a guard falling down a flight of stairs with a bucket on his head.
Gord – 5
It feels appropriate that these creatures should take centre stage in a game so heavily rooted in folklore, allowing nature to fight back against our band of pillagers. In these moments, Gord rises from its torpor, channelling the Brothers Grimm to potent effect. Yet for each memorable encounter, there are more that fail to spark the imagination, or simply leave a sour taste. If its creators can dig out the rot in its foundations, there is at least plenty to build upon here.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk – 7
And while its camera and controls are a huge improvement over its predecessors, the odd hiccup still persists. But most of the time, with the soundtrack – amix of laidback house, hip-hop and funk – doing its thing in the background, and the world gradually opening up to you, it’s easy to fall into a pleasant trance for long stretches. As your mind empties, you might even forget those comparisons, at least for a minute or two.
Goodbye Volcano High – 8
In between are rhythm-action interludes which recognise that the extra pressure of combos or high scores isn’t required to compel you to do well; you want to hit those markers because you know how much it matters. And, as a cathartic climactic performance ensures Worm Drama get to say farewell to Volcano High on their own terms, the eruption of emotion is likely to be reflected on your side of the screen, too.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – 8
If all that sounds slightly too wishy-washy for its own good, the script is certainly not afraid to be frank (and occasionally filthy), while enough of the big narrative swings connect to forgive the odd miss. Whether you’re truly getting to co-author Fortuna’s story isn’t always clear, but then divination is an ambiguous practice – and here, a terrifically enjoyable one.
Astronaut: The Best – 6
A little too much is left to chance, and though the game’s multiversal conceit offers ways to your fortunes on subsequent runs, there’s little you can do when a roulette wheel that lands on a favourable outcome is mischievously rewound to a disastrous one. There’s just enough variety on each new attempt that such chicanery isn’t entirely ruinous, but too often we feel like one of our addled recruits in the cockpit, pushing random buttons in the vain hope that nothing bad happens.
Gotta love how Baulders Gate 3 has great replay value, definitely my kinda game.