DeVuego

Evil Dead: The Game has a ton of appeal to fans of the horror franchise, while also offering up a good deal of gameplay for players who may not be so familiar with it. The resource management aspect to playing as a demon is intriguing, and for those who aren’t so good at strategizing, playing against AI is always an option to hone your skills. Occasional glitches take some of the shine off, and no checkpoints in the single player missions is a baffling decision. Can such a game grow long enough legs with the ever-popular games as a service model? Only time will tell. But for an asking price of $39.99, there is enough content at launch to appease most fans.

Solo: Islands of the Heart is perhaps the most introspective game to release this year. The gameplay may not have much to do with the story, but the puzzles are decent roadblocks on the journey. The whole adventure will only take most gamers 4-6 hours to complete, and while that may feel like enough for the price ($19.99) for some, just as the puzzles start to get more challenging, the game is over. Fans of puzzle games may want to check out Solo: Islands of the Heart, but those who are expecting a major challenge will probably want to look elsewhere.

Infernium attempts to pay homage to older games, and mostly leaves the player alone to discover the world on their own. Problem is, many of the connections between levels only make sense to the developer, and while the game’s scares may cause a good jump or two, they are easy to see coming after the first few times. Permadeath is a mechanic few games use these days, but when dying in a game is this agonizing involving multiple loading screens, the player may almost welcome obtaining a game over since it’s the last time they’ll see that purgatory.

Immortal Redneck is ultimately a simple, fun game that is hard to master. Constantly replaying the same pyramid in order to progress sounds repetitive on the surface, but randomizing various key aspects changes things up enough to ensure the trip stays varied. Tongue-in-cheek humor with some of the weapons, but especially on literal objects such as the skill tree, help to dial down some of the frustrations of grabbing the occasional bad random scroll. All of this is packaged up in a sleek, cheap ($19.99) download and buttery-smooth, consistent frame rate that keeps the action going. Immortal Redneck is a good buy for those looking for a challenging arcade shooter that keeps things fresh.

Aragami is an interesting mix of genres. The experience is unfortunately dragged down a few notches by performance issues, though those will hopefully go away in the form of patches. With a campaign hovering around the dozen hour mark, and one which includes online Co-op, stealth fans will find their next fix in Aragami, for a reasonable asking price of $19.99/£19.99/€14.99. It’s a solid, stealth action game which should provide for an entertaining weekend full of quiet kills and stalking in the shadows.