Recent reviews by Kyle H. McCloud

With so many free updates and more on the way, this is the best way to play all the classic Halo games (and Halo 4).

Left 4 Dead 2 is STILL the best zombie game ever made over 11 years after release. If you own a computer made in the last 10 years, you can run this game and you owe it to yourself to buy it. L4D2 has all the content from L4D1 plus extra, so this is all you need.

The gameplay is exciting, varied, and simple -- without being TOO simple. The characters are endlessly fun to be around. There's dozens of hours of content to enjoy, both official and community-made via the Steam Workshop. And finally, there are no microtransactions to spoil the zombie-shooting fun.

This game is accessible, too! There's a colorblind mode, full in-game subtitles and closed captions that are easy to read, customizable controls, four difficulty options with no penalties for changing your difficulty mid-game, and squeamish players can even turn off blood and gore effects. L4D2 is a game that's highly recommended to anyone and everyone.

Doom Eternal is the most enjoyable disappointment I've ever played.

It's not a bad game. In fact, it's pretty good! But as a direct sequel to one of my favorite games of the 2010s -- a direct sequel to one of the best reboots in the history of fiction -- it's an experience best described as baffling.

Doom Eternal regularly left me scratching my head and asking "Why?" because its problems seem so obvious and easy for the developers to avoid. The minor issues I had with the previous Doom have not been fixed -- the pump shotgun still sucks, there are still too many upgrades, etc. Meanwhile, a dozen new MAJOR issues have been introduced to the Doom formula by "fixing" what wasn't broken.

Combat is now a highly restrictive game of rock-paper-scissors compared to the Dooms of yore. The game forces you to either use specific, pre-defined strategies on every enemy or waste a ton of (extremely limited) ammo for not playing by the rules. Old Dooms, especially Doom 2016, encourage a playstyle by rewarding you for playing "correctly." But Doom Eternal enforces a playstyle by punishing you for playing "incorrectly." It seems minor, but it's a world of difference in how the games feel.

I could write a 30-page essay about all the little things wrong with the combat, the platforming, the story, etc. But here's a single sentence that describes my overall feelings on almost every aspect of this game:

It's not bad, but it's wrong for Doom.

It's like Doom with more F-bombs. 10/10 w/ mods.