Recent reviews by MW2K

Totally bizarre game. An 80/100 effort.

The good

Utterly weird and unique setting
Excellent level design
Game gets stranger the further you get into it - this is a good thing
Excellent skill upgrades
Some very challenging boss fights
Well-drawn, animated and laid out
Music is good

The bad

Story can be incoherent
Some jankiness in Jesse's movement
No quicksave, though the autosave is frequent enough not to be annoying
Some minor backtracking involved

Weird and wonderful in equal turns. An 85/100 effort.

The good

Unique concept executed with panache
Well-crafted story
Different paths to take, lead to different endings
Well-drawn, animated and depicted
Voice acting is good
Time loop mechanism is well done
Some challenging combat/stealth sections

The bad

Seriously in need of a map as the city can be difficult to get around
Combat sections seem a bit off considering the kind of game this is, but they're minor

Creepy, compelling and occasionally awkward to play. A 70/100 effort.

The good

Tells a good, wholesome, Lovecraftian story. The best kind of wholesome story
Dark and oppressive tone maintained throughout
Different branching endings
Some solid puzzles
The QTEs aren't as onerous or as annoying as they in other games. In fact, they're too easy
Can save at any time. This makes sampling the various endings out a lot easier

The bad

Awkward camera angles and moving around
Highlighted objects not as bright or as prominent as they could be
Some inappropriate background music. Jaunty Russian folk music while traipsing in a dark dungeon, e.g

There are too many negative aspects that suck the fun out of what this game has to offer. A 40/00 effort.

The good

Well-drawn and well-animated
Voice acting can be good
Good music

The bad

Some brutal game mechanics that overly challenge the player too early, too soon. Monster swarms, etc - Poor risk/reward balance
Background story is ho-hum - standard fantasy fare. Another milieu that's 1300 AD western Europe with magic and demihumans thrown in for laughs.
The camping quasi-realism mechanic is boring and a chore. It always boggles me why some games and some authors are sticklers for this kind of realism when their world operates in ways that are physically impossible or highly improbable, i.e magic, undead, etc. There's a word for this kind of antic, and it's called "verisimilitude" and that antic is a gimmick.
Travelling anywhere therefore is a drudge
The barony management aspect is also boring and a chore
None of the characters are memorable and a couple are borderline aggravating

An excellent one-man project. A real labour of love. An 80/100 effort.

The good

Game is made by one guy - shows you what can be done with dedication
Frequently updated with new features, bugfixes and Steam workshop capabilities
Compelling open world setting
Some challenging boss fights

The bad

Some floaty and janky combat
Some of the animations need work
A few typos and lost in translation issues

This was a weird one. Good, but weird. A 75/100 effort.

The good

Bizarre and well-crafted environments
Weird in a good way
Moody music
Tells a sad, though ghoulish story

The bad

Some variable voice acting
Manipulating some objects can be problematical
No real challenges, no difficult puzzles to speak of

This is the game where droids bleat like sheep and goats when you hit them. Shows it age a little in both looks and gameplay, but hey it's Star Wars. A 70/100 effort.

The good

Excellent character writing and dialogue, typical Bioware goodness
Character arcs and stories can be wonderful, especially Imperial Agent
Builds upon the worlds and stories started by both KOTOR games
Great crafting - it's actually useful and not just for fluff
Great voice acting, your characters and the NPCs
Good fun being evil in your choices
Space combat and starfighter is a hoot once you get into them
Good character and weapon customisation
Some challenging boss fights and operations (raids)
Since you get levelled down accordingly to match the planet you're on, there is some replayability

The bad

Game feels like it's on a long, slow decline
It looks old on most worlds especially the environments - low-res mountains, rocks, etc, even with all sliders right
Strict themepark - you follow almost the same path with each character every time, only the story missions differ, and once you've done all eight of them, you're done and waiting for the next expansion
So, going through the same areas again feels more like a chore than entertainment
Boring music, especially Voss and Corellia which sound like ambient remixes of each other
Player base can be immature
Non-operation or heroic stuff can lack challenges

Arguably Spiders' best game yet. Lacks most of the annoyances from their previous games. A 75/100 effort.

The good

Huge world to explore
Excellent skills and talents upgrades
Crafting is a good too
Good use of diplomacy and negotiation. Adds a new dimension.
Deals with subjects like colonialism and racism well
Great story - even most of the side quests are good
Your actions have real consequences
Some challenging boss fights

The bad

Some serious running around and backtracking
Not truly open world - lots of invisible walls and barriers everywhere
What you can jump over or climb up seems arbitrary sometimes
Fighting the same kinds of monsters over and over gets old
Romancing your companions is hit and miss

Better game than its predecessor but still full of the same issues it had. A 75/100 effort.

The good

Superbly rendered environments
Excellent voice acting
Same with the animations
A very decent story (if far-fetched)
Lots of hair-raising moments
Lots of good action sequences too, and a good selection of weapons to get the job done
Plenty of upgrade and crafting options
Lara is an appealing character. She's a human rather than a walking advertisement for silicone implants.

The bad

Close combat fighting is still problematical due to the whack camera angles
Enemy AI can range from passable to dumb to totally non-existent
Camera angles themselves can be a PITA. There's one instance where she's climbing a wall, and the camera goes AWOL way off the screen.
Too many Spielberg-ish cliffhanger moments
Main villain is an idiot
What Lara can climb or mantle is variable
Same with where she can go - lots of game walls and barriers
Backtracking involved if you want to explore places previously inaccessible due to a lack of the right weapon/tool

Ignore what Steam says - I've sunk at least 1000 hours into this game since it was released. I like it, but I don't recommend it to new players. It looks old and it plays old, and the skill system and upgrade systems are impenetrable to a new player without looking up guides etc. I could write an essay on this game, but the tl;dr is that this is the biggest missed opportunity in MMOs.

The good

Compelling world - probably the best thing about this game.
Low system requirements - can run on old hardware
Great music
Lots of different classes to try, though two are behind a paywall expansion

The bad

The game mostly consists of doing one mission after the other to level. Find an org (guild), and that might change, but if you run solo, this is going to be one monotonous ride to endgame
Tab-targeting - if you're used to more modern action MMOs, this is going to be a slow-motion snoozefest by comparison
Figuring out how to build implants, gear yourself, getting the right nanos etc, is a science in itself and you'll need a guide or two to work it out.
Complex skill and item upgrade systems - unless you pay attention to how you spend your points, you'll end up with a borked character
And despite that complex upgrade system, the combat is laughably simple. Set combat on, and the rest is mostly automatic save your "specials" which take x amount of seconds to refresh. Cast a nano (spell) every now and then to break the monotony if you have a caster character.
Shadowlands - turned this science fiction game into some sort of weird fantasy.
Incomplete map - there's all these holes in the map where areas were meant to be, but never made it into the game - I think Funcom ran out of money before they could finish AO.
Can't get anything above 1080p without using mods
Weird and non-intuitive interface
Looks and plays every bit of its 20 years
And the biggest bad? This could have been the greatest MMO ever made - it definitely had the potential. Its only real competition at release was Ultima Online and Everquest, both fantasy games. This was a pure science fiction game that promised so much. And failed. Poor launch, bad first impressions, bugs, exploits, cumbersome and confusing skill systems all consigned this game to the also-ran bucket. And for 20 years it's limped along in mostly maintenance mode played by a faithful few and the odd curious newbie.