52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

[supremeusername]

Omg nice! I love Picross 3D, definitely underappreciated if you ask me. Glad you enjoyed it! I have the 3DS sequel laying around, I should really get to it sometime.

From what I read, the sequel was only available as digital download in the US. That's pretty cool that you have a copy! I'll have to try playing it sometime in the near future.

[supremeusername]

29. MECCHA CHAMELEON | 2026 | PC | 7/4:



     Got roped into buying another 'friendslop' game. MECCHA CHAMELEON combines the idea of Prop Hunt and art into one game. You can't morph into other objects, but you can paint your stick figure guy to work into the background of objects. Hiding in cheap or glitch spots will only get you so far. The best way to fool my friends, I found out, is by picking some Looney Tunes-ass spot and sticking to it. I'm not the best artist, but I found out hiding in plain sight works wonders for me.

     Unlike a lot of these popular cooperative games, MECCHA CHAMELEON already has mods built in using Steam Workshop. I've been able to hide in Bikini Bottom, Delfino Plaza, and Clock Town from LoZ: Majora's Mask, among other random locations. A lot of these Workshop maps had kind of been one and done between my friend group, but I can only imagine what the future may bring if this is only the first month since the game has come out. The base maps (despite not playing them enough) have been pretty fun as well. They have expanded some of these maps with a much larger layout (the Backrooms map for example), though I can see these maps getting to be over-familiar with constant replays. There's no procedural generation element to this game like with R.E.P.O. or Lethal Company, so what you see in each map is what you get every time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing: there's a whole oasis of maps to choose from via. the Steam Workshop, and this seems like the kind of game to come back to every so often, not every day. As long as there's a community for MECCHA CHAMELEON, the game will continue to thrive. Grade: B+

[supremeusername]

30. Burnout Revenge | 2006 | Xbox Series X | 7/9:



     I played all the way until I unlocked the final "Dominator" levels, and decided that was good enough for a 'completion'.

     Burnout Revenge is all about completing challenges. They pretty much boil down to races, time attacks, or crashing into cars. The third and final category is probably the greatest, most well-known part about the Burnout franchise -- and the thing you'll be doing the most of throughout this game. There's the 'Traffic Attack' mode for example: where you crash pedestrian vehicles into other pedestrian vehicles to achieve a higher score. It gets tougher later on; when you have to go through stretches where there's no vehicles to hit. The timer runs out quickly when you don't crash into vehicles, so there's some strategy involved when deciding the right moments to attack and when to speed up.

     The races are a mixed bag. They are pretty engaging, don't get me wrong, but this game has some of the wonkiest AI I've seen in a while. On early stages, even when multiple opponents are ahead of you, they will all slow down abruptly right at the finish line so you can win. In later stages however, if you don't have any boost saved up while you're in the lead, prepare for opponents popping out of nowhere to knock you off course. It seems the only way to get past them without boost is by either performing a takedown to gain boost or just wait for the AI to crash themselves (which happens quite a lot).

     The Xbox 360 version apparently uses a tweaked physics system different from the last-gen ports, along with enhanced graphics. The visuals lean heavily on the sepia (probably popular at the time), but it's a little too much for me to handle at times. It's harder to keep up with the later challenges that feature faster cars when there's so much visual stimuli to distract you: bloom, motion blur, the blur of brown colors mixed together, all the icons on screen at once, etc.. Sometimes hitting into other racers won't register as you hitting them, but them hitting you. Even when you're practically T-boning them, if you get the red text of "Slammed!" as you both approach the oncoming wall, you're screwed.

     As much as I'm ranting on, I do like this game. 'Crash' mode is the signature highlight. Crashing into cars feels visceral and pure eye-candy to observe, yet the mode requires some thought regarding where to crash in order to achieve the highest score. You start understanding the tracks more as the game gets faster and it really puts your memory to the test. It also helps that Burnout Revenge is a buttery smooth 60 FPS all throughout. Not my ideal arcade racer, but it's still stupid fun. Grade: C+

[supremeusername]

31. R.C. Pro-Am II | 1992 | Rare Replay Collection | Xbox Series X | 7/11:



     Plays a lot better than its predecessor. For one, I don't feel like I'm sliding into oil slicks as often and there's more control over the vehicle you're driving. A cool change to Pro-Am II is being able to buy upgrades for your car -- using the money you earn after every round of driving. Sometimes, I feel as if buying the upgrades doesn't impact the game as much as I would've liked. Sure, I can feel my car going faster compared to where it was at round 1, but then -- when I go to purchase an engine upgrade and race afterwards, there's always one NPC that somehow drives a lot faster than me.

     That's some of that signature Rare BS I've come to know by now, rearing it's ugly mug at me. There's some stages where a plane will show up to target you and ONLY you with either pellets or hydrogen bombs that one-hit KO your ass. And one thing that they still haven't learned from the 1st title: the camera is positioned way too close to your car. You really have to memorize these tracks in order to win, especially when you don't. In other words: NPC drivers can earn cash as well, and use their cash to purchase upgrades. If you don't win enough races, you will fall behind in developing a competitive vehicle and it's a very difficult hole to climb out of.

     I'm sure R.C. Pro-Am II was meant to be played in a group setting, rather than played for achievements in a 30-game compilation. Still, the upgrade system is an awesome feature and it's a graphically appealing game (makes sense for a late NES title). The button masher mini-games are pretty fun too. Grade: C-

[realpoketendonl]

Omg nice! I love Picross 3D, definitely underappreciated if you ask me. Glad you enjoyed it! I have the 3DS sequel laying around, I should really get to it sometime.

From what I read, the sequel was only available as digital download in the US. That's pretty cool that you have a copy! I'll have to try playing it sometime in the near future.

Oh yes, I'm European, and here it did release physically. So that helps . Though oddly, despite me getting the game used from a Dutch game store, my copy appears to be Australian? No idea how that ended up here but oh well, it still works on my 3DS so whatever

[telly]

Game 11 - Bear & Breakfast (PS5) - 24 Hours

If you like games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, Bear & Breakfast will definitely be for you. You just play as a bear setting up little rooms for guests furnishing it with all kinds of cute items, while exploring a beautiful little woodland environment. It has absolutely gorgeous graphics, great music, and really engaging gameplay. There's a very nice crafting system that you can use to build bedrooms, bathrooms and other special rooms to your specifications to meet guests needs, and there's more strategy to it than you would think. There are these really fantastic systems in place that steadily add more features as you take on more properties to manage (like food, heat, etc.) while also giving you more tools to make these new tasks, like people that you can hire to help you. So ultimately it doesn't feel too overwhelming. There are tons of lovable characters too that you can meet, and while they don't have as much to them as something like Stardew Valley, they were certainly a welcome addition.

I think where this game wasn't as great was the story and particularly the ending. The story is pretty basic up until the last 3/4s of the game, where it suddenly becomes very existential, with a lot of lore dumps just forced on the player in a way that could have been better delivered if it were integrated. The ending in particular was quite bad, and after you finish the final quest the game unceremoniously just notifies you that you finished the game with no credits or real closure. It felt very rushed.

Other than that, Bear & Breakfast is a great cozy game with a lot of charm that I very much enjoyed.

[telly]

Game 12 - Crow Country (PS5) - 5 Hours

Absolutely fantastic horror game, top to bottom. This game perfectly evokes an early 3D game style with beautiful and thoughtfully crafted environments, great atmosphere and music, amazing sound effects, and all of it works together in a masterful way to create a very creepy and unsettling yet entertaining horror game experience.

While it isn't the longest game, you can tell that every single inch is just stuffed to the brim with detail. The game has near perfect environmental design, great enemies, solid controls, an interesting story with just the right amount of spice, and puzzles that were just difficult enough but not frustratingly so. I don't think I can name a single flaw with this game, other than maybe the shooting controls being a little wonky, but to me it fits very well within the style the game is trying to evoke, and the era of gaming that it pays homage to.

Crow Country is easily my favorite game that I've played so far this year, and you like old school Resident Evil or PlayStation one games in general, definitely check it out.

[telly]

Game 13 - Resident Evil 5 (PS4) - 10 Hours (2-player co-op)

So first of all, I am not going to be one to say that Resident Evil 5 is a masterpiece of gaming. It's certainly a very flawed, very silly game that tries way too hard to be serious and mature, but ultimately fails in every regard because it's just so damn funny. This is particularly true if you're playing cooperatively which honestly I think is the only way that you should play Resident Evil 5. Don't even bother trying to play this game single player because the AI companion is terrible and will give you nonstop game overs and nonstop frustration.

Playing this game cooperative, however, led to nonstop laughs and fun. There really isn't another game like it that I've ever played. The fiendishly tricky inventory management system that was very much a part of Resident Evil 4 is also an enjoyable aspect of this game as you try to manage your resources between two different players. This plays into the strategy because both players will end up picking different weapons that pushes each into different roles (e.g., short range vs. long range weapons) and that really works well as a Co-op experience. I especially enjoyed the boss fights, which were designed more for a Co-op experience than I thought, with special weapons that one player has to hold in order to defeat the bosses like a flamethrower or a satellite guided missile launcher.

But again, I'm not saying that this game is perfect or even good, particularly compared to it’s predecessor, Resident Evil 4. Is it an incredibly watered down and repetitive copy paste of Resident Evil 4? Yes. Are the story and enemies a lot less interesting than RE4? Yes. Are many of the setpieces and weapons copied directly from RE4? Yes. And to top it all off, while I think the African setting was really interesting and hasn't really been explored in gaming that much there is obviously a lot of stereotypical cultural references that really haven't aged that well.

So all in all Resident Evil 5 is a very flawed game, but man did I have fun playing it and I'm not ashamed to admit it

[kashell]

Game 12 - Crow Country (PS5) - 5 Hours

Absolutely fantastic horror game, top to bottom. This game perfectly evokes an early 3D game style with beautiful and thoughtfully crafted environments, great atmosphere and music, amazing sound effects, and all of it works together in a masterful way to create a very creepy and unsettling yet entertaining horror game experience.

While it isn't the longest game, you can tell that every single inch is just stuffed to the brim with detail. The game has near perfect environmental design, great enemies, solid controls, an interesting story with just the right amount of spice, and puzzles that were just difficult enough but not frustratingly so. I don't think I can name a single flaw with this game, other than maybe the shooting controls being a little wonky, but to me it fits very well within the style the game is trying to evoke, and the era of gaming that it pays homage to.

Crow Country is easily my favorite game that I've played so far this year, and you like old school Resident Evil or PlayStation one games in general, definitely check it out.

I loved reading this write-up! I have a file somewhere for this. I'll likely start the game from the beginning since I can't remember where I left off. Knowing that it's short makes me feel better about that.

[kamikazekeeg]

24 - Palworld (PC 2026) - DROPPED - Dropping a game twice in the same year lol I dropped it before as I felt after like 20 hours, I got what I needed to see and was gonna wait for the 1.0 release.  With the 1.0 release, I put in about 30 hours total and kinda hit a point where I felt like the game was kinda dragging with the resource grind to get gear, and that I felt like the actual content in the game wasn't super interesting. 

I probably said it before, but the game is very creatively bankrupt, which I can be okay with if I felt like the experience it offered was addicting or engaging enough for me, even if it's not original.  I'm generally quite into open world, survival crafting, games, this genre is my "Animal Crossing" or "Stardew Valley", the game you just get absorbed into for many hours, I can really get into them and Palworld hits what you expect out of the genre, but never does anything more.  It's functionally just Pokemon characters, with Pokemon styles capturing, in a Breath of the Wild style world, with some stuff that feels abit unique, but also feels very...asset pack flippy.  You can have your bows and swords, but you also just get very normal guns.  My current favorite guns is a semi-auto rifle, that is just the M1 Garand, complete with satisfying mag ping upon reload.

The problem I think overall with the Pokemon aspect is that they originally sold it more as a "parody", really emphasizing the creatures with guns or the "slave labor" vibe and I think they might've originally had that idea, but kinda realized if they toned back on that abit, they'd probably attract more people like actual Pokemon fans.  All that stuff is still there, but it's not handled in quite the same way, so what you end up getting is kind of a very lacking Pokemon experience, because you never really control your Pal unless you are riding them, but you don't ever need to really do that, so combat with your Pals is very automated.

The world is far too big.  It ripped off Breath of the Wild's huge map with glider mechanics and climbing anywhere, and while I love Breath of the Wild, it's map size was never the best, but I still think it did it better, because it at least felt more hand-crafted.  Areas are just big, empty, samey and don't feel rewarding.  There's a couple tiny unique "towns" or settlements, but some places I've come across that are just like "bad guy bases" just use the very basic base building mechanics for the design, which looks ugly at larger scale.  Fine for your personal base, not great for unique content.  For a game as successful as it is, it's got a lot of cut corners and lazy content...Even at Pokemon's worst, it still had like unique towns and interesting characters that might do something.  The only unique characters in the game are bosses that you only see once when you enter their boss tower, and never again.  Weirdly only the first boss, Zoe, can be someone you can recruit to join you, even getting copies of her and her Pal, so you can have them in your party or working at your base, but none of the other bosses have that.  Maybe they'll add that eventually, but that should have been in the 1.0.

So you got that big world and lacking content that is very repetitive and not interesting, with a mostly non-existent story that's about collecting spheres from bosses to then maybe get a power given to you at the giant tree and that's sorta it.  A little bit of my annoyance has sprung up with a possible graphics card issue, it seems like graphic heavy games cause my system to freeze, not constantly, but I thought I solved it by cleaning the dust out of my PC, went to long, but I don't know...it came back...sours things abit, but it also just made me realize that after 4 bosses down, and 5 more to go, 30 more levels to get by the end, the resource grind needed, and when it felt like I hit a point of getting my base setup to beat the grind, just to have it slow down because of all the other stuff I needed...I think I hit burn out...

Not a terrible game, but I think there's a way better game here had they wanted to actually lean more into the Pokemon parody, or wanted to have a game that felt like a true big, expansive, alternative to Pokemon.  I'll still take this over Pokemon, this has been more enjoyable than any of the Switch era Pokemon games I played, but that doesn't make it a super great game, just an okay game. 

[realpoketendonl]

21. Star Fox Adventures

The release of Star Fox on Nintendo Switch 2 got me in a Star Fox mood. I've always been curious about Adventures. I know that 10-15 years ago, when teenage me was watching YouTube, it was getting absolutely slammed online with people saying it's terrible and not a real Star Fox. But it always looked interesting to me, so now I decided to give it a shot. And honestly? I don't know what those people were on about. This game is really good!

Rather than being a space rail shooter, Star Fox Adventures is a 3D adventure game. And while I'm not super experienced in the genre, I thought this game was really fun! It took me a moment, but after the prologue and running around as Fox a bit, I found myself engaged with the game and the world. I enjoyed walking around, solving the challenges and progressing from goal to goal. It was all really well designed, never once did I feel lost. Also helped by the highly detailed hint system that will borderline tell you what to do if you get stuck.

I also found the world and characters really charming. I'm not going to act like it's super deep or revolutionary, but there's a certain magic to it. It took me back to a simpler time, filled me with a childlike wonder. It's genuinely a world I kinda want to stay in. Granted, there also were some weaker parts to the game, like the voice acting on some of the characters and the rather mediocre combat, but I didn't find them a hindrance.

No, this is not a traditional Star Fox. And I get that if that's what you wanted back in 2002, Adventures may have been a letdown. But I think the very poor reputation this game has garnered over the years is completely unjustified. If you don't look at this as what it's not, but instead just as what it is, namely a relatively accessible 3D adventure game, then you can find a lot to like here. I definitely enjoyed my time with it, no doubt. And I think I'll remember it for a good bit.

[2ko]

12. Avatar: The Last Airbender (DS)
There is the idea of a good game here, but poor implementation has relegated this title to the same IP slop category as all the other movie and tv show tie-in cash grabs these earlier generations were known for.

Maps are way to big and empty. A good 1 hour of this 5 hour game is spent just walking around getting to the next destination, with branching paths that lead nowhere and have nothing. What's the point?

Combat is just a simplified beat-em-up. You have your regular attack, your special attack (which requires you to fill a gauge to use), block and special block (basically a better block that uses some of your special gauge). Most fights you will just be spamming the basic attack since it puts 90% of the enemies you face into hit-stun, allowing you to just keep spamming it while the enemies can't move.

It uses an isometric view that makes combat a bit frustrating though cause you can never tell if your attack is going to hit. On more than one occasion it seemed like my attacks were just going through the enemy, but I guess they were just slightly off enough for the attack to miss the hitbox but for the visuals to overlap.

Audio wise it was cool that they had voice lines read by the real VAs of the show, but it was only a few lines at the end of each chapter. Most of the time dialogue is not voiced at all. Each chapter also only has a single BGM that will play on repeat, which gets very repetitive pretty fast.

Like I could see how this could have been a good game, but it has too many drawbacks, cut corners and uninspired design to really recommend playing. 3/10, would not recommend. 

[bikingjahuty]

47. Once Upon a Katamari (Switch)

It kinda blows my mind how long I've been playing Katamari games. Rewind to sometime in 2005, two coworkers of mine and I hung out one evening after work at one of their apartments. When we arrived, the coworker whose apartment we were at asks, "have you ever played Katamari before?" At the time, I had no freakin clue what the hell a Katamari was or that it was even a video game. My evening changed dramatically when we sat down in front of his TV and PS2 and he popped in the disc for We Love Katamari. The three of us literally stayed up all night playing it while listening to JPOP and Dir En Gray. It was an amazing night, but most of all, I knew where my next $50 was going.


I bought my own copy of We Love Katamari on the PS2 and since then I've played and beat nearly ever Katamari game ever released. While I love this quirky series about rolling everything and anything up, one criticism I will level on it is how many of the games over the years have kinda blended together a bit. Sure, the series has benefited from better graphics on more powerful systems, new levels and objectives, a new UI, and some new features, but overall the game's assets, levels, and pretty much most of what makes a Katamari game...well, a Katamari game has been roughly the same, or at least very similar. Going into the newest entry in the franchise, Once Upon a Katamari, I expected this trend to continue despite it being the first game in the series in over a decade. Not only was I completely wrong and thoroughly surprised, but I found what ended up being my favorite Katamari game  ever made.


Once upon a Katamari is an extensive and meaningful update over any previous Katamari game by far! At the same time, all the core components of what make these games so fun and memorable was completely in tact, for better or worse. Once Upon a Katamari is broken up into levels, called eras in the game, that contain multiple stages, all themed around the setting of the specific era. For example, there is an era for ancient Egypt, the Jurassic period, Edo period Japan, and various other distinct eras. The things you will roll up and the basis of the missions you'll need to complete align with these era themes which is a fun, creative way of making them all feel memorable and fun...well, most of them at least. However, it's within these specialized stage objectives where I found some of my favorite challenges in the entire Katamari franchise, but also some of the worst ones I've played in the series too.


Like all Katamari games, this game at its core is about rolling progressively larger and larger items up into your Katamari ball, resulting in the Katamari growing more and more. The series has long evolved past simply rolling up as much stuff as possible in a set amount of time, and often requires you to complete specific objectives like roll up only certain types of objects, avoid water when you're attempting to light something ablaze with your burning Katamari, or get your Katamari to a specific place before time runs out. Most of Once Upon a Katamari's levels embrace this formula and will have you doing things like making a giant Katamari out of roses to impress a woman for some guy or recharging your Katamari with water while you create a desert oasis. Yeah, this game is weird, but that's 100% part of its charm. Most of these specialized levels are fine, however I found a handful of them to be some of the most annoying, poorly designed and tedious levels in the entire series. Luckily, most of the mission objectives and levels in Once Upon a Katamari are fun to play, some of them being the msot fun I've experienced in the franchise, but like any game, you have to the good with the bad when evaluating a game's quality.


Fret not though; Once Upon a Katamari still has plenty of levels that only require you to go crazy and make your Katamari as big as possible, and often levels that embrace this tried and true formula shone just as brightly as they did in previous entries. However, definitely expect there to be a lot of specialized levels that are themed around the era stage they are located in.


The visuals in Once Upon a Katamari are a crowning achievement for the series as a whole. With how radically difference this game is from any other Katamari game, the diverse eras and their themes, the huge variety of things to roll up, and various other quirky aspects of Once Upon a Katamari elevate it to a nearly flawless level. The art style and graphics have a simplistic charm to them which compliments the weirdness these games deliberately go for, but also look surprisingly vibrant and beautiful at the same time. Every level regardless of theme is fun, colorful, and full of personality and charm. My only real criticism of the visuals is there are a lot of reused assets across stages like in previous games, but Once Upon a Katamari is definitely the least guilty of this. This game's visual presentation is definitely its best quality, which is certainly saying something since this whole game is pretty excellent.


Once Upon a Katamari's audio is nearly as good as its visuals. Overall, Once Upon a Katamari's soundtrack is probably my favorite in the series. There are so many catchy, upbeat, and sometimes even surprisingly relaxing tracks in here to where I've been listening to some of them outside of playing the game. This game also has all the familiar, highly satisfying sound effects of the previous games, including the bleeps and bloops of picking specific objects up. That unmistakable Katamari DNA is absolutely present in its newest entry, but it's also fresh and new enough to where it'll give even long time fans something to fawn over when taking it all in with their ears.


I knew I would like this game, but even I'm surprised by how much I thoroughly enjoyed Once Upon a Katamari. If someone asked me what the best game to start with was, I'd actually say this game despite it being the newest. I feel like it has the best representation of what the series is all about and what it does best. And that's despite the fact that it has about half a dozen crap levels in it. There is just so much new, meaningful content in Once Upon a Katamari that I feel like it's impossible for me not to recommend it from strictly even an entertainment standpoint. Namco really nailed it with this game and I can only hope we've entered an era where new, fresh Katamari games will once again see regular releases on modern consoles. (7/14/26) [40/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

25 - FNAF 4 (PC 2015) - BEAT - Decided to give Night 5 a go again and after a few deaths getting back into it, I beat it.  I know there's actually like 2 more nights technically, but I'm going through the original games mostly to experience the classic "Five Nights" idea.  This one is overall good, it's simple, but the idea of relying entirely on audio cues and constantly having to go back and forth is an interesting one.  It makes for something that can be tough, but keeps you engaged.  It's sorta the idea of what FNAF 2 was, but here it's built around that, compared to FNAF 2 having this whole camera system that's mostly kinda pointless.  I'll get to the other two nights eventually.

26 - FNAF: Sister Location (PC 2016) - DROPPED - It sucks to say that another one of these games sucks lol FNAF 2 I didn't really like, but functionally it's okay.  FNAF 3 is a visual mess and functionally a step back from 1, 2, with 4 getting things back to feeling and looking good.  Sister Location throws all that out in favor of turning nights into a very linear experience that is mostly like minigames.  There's lots of slow dialogue stuff that drags things out, some clunky game design that isn't clear what you are supposed to do, it's just not fun in any way.  I dropped it at Night 3, I just can't be bothered to continue on.  I can appreciate each game kinda trying to do its own unique thing for the most part, but this was so poorly thought out, for the sake of trying to implement more actual story into the game.

All that's left at the moment is FNAF 6/Pizza Simulator, but it's free so if I don't like that, it at least didn't cost me anything lol

*EDIT*
27 - Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Simulator (PC 2017) - DROPPED - Man, this series went out with kind of a wet fart for me lol I liked FNAF 4 generally, but then Sister Location just missed the mark hard, and while I like the idea of the the like top down restaurant simulator here, it's basic, but could be a fun idea on its own if it was fleshed out, the actual "FNAF" part of doing stuff while worrying about Animatronics is once again tedious and not fun.  You are mostly just listening for vent rustling, managing your noise you make while you click on things on the computer.  You technically have like a motion sensor and audio lure to deal with animatronics, but when I looked up a guide for tips, once again, similar to FNAF 2, the best way to play the game is to ignore most of what they offer, and just do things a very narrow, simple, way.  I got about...3 or 4 nights, not sure how many days I had left, but this just isn't good.

This series overall is great for its atmosphere, for the animatronic designs, the general lore, but as actual games, they aren't designed well, they feel every bit the indie budget experience they are, all of which were made in a very quick timeframe (4 years between FNAF1 and Ultimate Night, not counting FNAF World) and you feel every bit of that. 

In the end, I liked FNAF 1 and 4 were the ones I liked the most, I wanted to like 2 more, and then I basically left half the series unfinished lol

[ssj4yamgeta]

11: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered

Finally, Core Design manages to churn out a really good TR game! This 4th entry is the first of the original 6 Core design Tomb Raider games that I genuinely enjoyed playing. Even if the formula isn't perfect yet, they have greatly developed and matured as game designers by this point. This game was far better than the buggy, poorly-designed garbage that was TRIII. The only real low point was the Cairo segment, but the final Giza segment after that ended up being one of the high points of the game. The writing is much better this time around as well, and the ending in particular made me give the game an extra half point just for how good and unpredictable it was. At the end you fight Set, but Lara can't even harm him because he's a literal god. The game treats it like you're a normal human going up against an actual deity. You can't kill Set, you can only seal him inside the Great Pyramid with the amulet of Horus. But Set gets his revenge. He shakes the pyramid, causing it to collapse on top of Lara. From a documentary I watched, this was the dev team's attempt to literally kill Lara off because they were tired of making Tomb Raider games one after the other. The company executives were horrified when the game released because the devs hadn't told them Lara dies at the end of the game. This eventually resulted in the sixth game retconning the ending and having Lara survive the collapse. The fifth game, Chronicles, is actually a compilation of Lara's previous adventures before the fourth game because she was still considered dead at that point.

This was a very fun game, despite a few convoluted design choices (and bugs such as mobs killing me during a cut scene in Giza, because Core Design gonna Core Design). I can see myself replaying this one quite a few times in the future, I just hope the next game can manage to sustain this level of quality.

Rating: 6.5/10 (Good+)

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (PS5)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (XBOX One)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered (PS4)

In Progress:

Nioh (PS4)
Farmagia (Switch)
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)