Sophie Halliday
Little King’s Story is not the worst port to have ever existed. However, the myriad problems that exist in the game mean the overall experience playing it on PC is badly tarnished. Essentially, it’s just really, really annoying. At the moment it is a bit of a broken mess and, until these issues are addressed anyone wishing to experience this title would do better to revisit the Wii original than waste time or money here.
In all honesty, this is a game to avoid.
Rather than investing in an immersive, intuitive, enjoyable gameplay experience, they have, unfortunately, created a generic and rather boring click fest of a game.
The overall lack of polish, the game's repetitive nature and the completely dysfunctional way in which information is presented to the player is a real let down. As a result, I don't think Warriors All-Stars is a game that is going to win over many new fans. The combat is accessible but everything else is a bit of a chore.
The problem I have with Holiday Star as a visual novel is the fact that the storytelling is, unfortunately, pretty weak. I did not feel remotely immersed in the stories and there was nothing to truly ingratiate me as a player – and I use that term literally in the sense of a person sitting down to play a game – in terms of my ability to interact with, influence, or even care about the narrative and its outcome. This, combined with Holiday Star's inability to even attempt to welcome new players into this zany universe, is a pretty major shortcoming. If you enjoyed the original game, this sequel will probably hold a certain amount of interest. For everyone else, I'm not sure it's worth the time.
Totally Reliable Delivery Service is a game that might provide passing entertainment to a group of friends for an hour or two; and the more challenging deliveries do generate some hilarious moments whilst making one ever more determined to try and complete them. But the novelty soon wears off, and there’s not really anything here that is likely to convince many to stay.
Exit the Gungeon is ultimately neither a good bullet hell game, nor a particularly fun experience. All in all, it’s a pretty bite size offering that lacks the variety one would expect from a full PC title.
All in all, Strikers Edge is a moderately fun game with limited long-term appeal. It's sincere enough but, ultimately, rather forgettable.
Despite its early promise, The Descendant’s rushed, extremely short ending felt clumsily executed. While it contained a few surprises, the delivery of Episode 5’s conclusion felt arbitrary, contrived and slightly out-of-sync with the narrative that’s been told over the course of the season. Perhaps most disappointingly, the player has very little agency in Episode 5 – a real let down, given the game’s initial promise that the choices made by the player would be impactful as the story progressed.
I remain interested in how Gaming AB plan to conclude this story, and what the final episode holds in store for each of these characters. However, if the story-telling and dialogue is not an improvement on Episode 4, players may be in for a derivative ending that undermines the interesting ideas set up by earlier chapters.