Ben Tarrant
- Fallout 3
- Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
- The Last of Us
Ben Tarrant's Reviews
There's lots of enjoyment to be had here, but it's also cruel reminder that the LEGO franchise needs something new to break out of its now conveyer-belt approach.
Outside of the new playable characters and patched up gameplay, Awesomenauts Assemble! does little to distance itself from its PS3 counterpart. Fortunately, it's still an enjoyable MOBA, with smooth – if a little slow – gameplay and a refreshing visual style. It's without a doubt the best and most complete version of Ronimo Games' excellent eighties homage to date – but it never quite does enough to make it worth a double-dip.
Natural Doctrine's combat system is ingenious, but it's obstructed by its complexity, while the remaining aspects of the release just about fulfil their roles to the point of adequacy. Although the game's intricacies will instantly cut itself out of most of the market, it's certainly a fantastic strategy title in its own right, which will challenge even the most adept players. This is a must buy for genre fans, then – and a cautionary tale for newcomers.
VooFoo can chalk this down as another successful adaptation, as Pure Pool proves to be an enjoyable and astoundingly well presented interpretation of arguably the greatest pub pastime. The tutorials and help sections should get newcomers up to speed, while the 'Pro' difficulty will definitely test veterans. There are a few difficulty issues which prevent it from hitting a perfect break, but the stripped back interface and immersive atmosphere mean that it certainly won't be snookering you tonight.
Guns Up! is devilishly addictive and provides a seriously fun formula of mutually beneficial attack and defence tactics. It's initially intimidating economy only works to give the game depth once you've completed the enlightening tutorial, leaving you with a constant desire to progress and improve both your settlement and your garrison of units. All the above is unsettlingly blighted by an ever-present need to fork out real cash or face the reality of dampening the enjoyment by grinding for hours. It's a necessary evil in the free-to-play genre that's simply too overbearing here to fully accept or ignore.
The endurance of This War of Mine: The Little Ones is limited and is certainly not something you'll want to play several times over and that's perfectly fine. It's a hard-hitting and unsettling look at the coldness and cruelty of the human condition and how the removal of social constructs unravels people so quickly that'll haunt you for a long time to come. Its premise is so bold it can often outshine its delivery, the idea it's conveying never feeling fully realized beyond the brief dips in pace. It's the most real feeling simulator of war out there and that in itself makes This War of Mine: The Little Ones quite terrifying and truly memorable.
Being digitized has been the enabling factor for Armello. In reality this would be a boring stat-checking and constant dice rolling experience, but the PS4 takes all the slack, doing the math and dice-rolling for you, allowing you to just enjoy the show. This makes the heavy rule book seem more palatable while you enjoy the rich and engaging lore. It's a well-balanced and good-looking experience that shows originality is still possible in a format that's centuries old.
Not A Hero is a thumping good shooter experience made all the more exiting through an intriguing art style; unrelenting gore and a relatively non-linear composition to pleasantly fleshed out levels. The humor, while likely to grind on you after a while, is rib tickling for most part. Its overall tenure is brief, never staying long enough for you to think too deeply about aiding a burrow-digging politician in murdering party opposers to gain power, and rightly so. While it won't have you mercilessly addicted to knocking out kickflips, it'll likely be one of the best 2 and a quarter shooters you play this year.
Two locations and four bosses doesn't sound like a whole bunch but don't be fooled - The Ringed City easily clocks in at four to five hours depending on how you fare with the bosses and other challenges. It's a meaty instalment and a welcome deviation from the practices seen in Ashes of Ariandel, while still interlocking with and continuing the complex narrative. The bosses are challenging and visually fantastic - besides a cheap NPC opponent - and the environments continue the Dark Souls tradition of being large, intricate, and engaging. The Ringed City feels like the climatic end that the Souls franchise deserves, even if we find ourselves hoping that this isn't actually the end at all.
It's a superior game that plays brilliantly, and certainly stands in a league of its own in the Arkham line-up for the most part, but it simply doesn't leave your jaw agape like Arkham City seemed to manage with such ease and finesse.
MouseCraft is an excellent addition to the puzzle genre, which successfully draws upon the strengths of several classics, while differentiating itself at the same time. A unique take on the 'rat in a maze' concept, this is entertaining on all three of Sony's systems, and while it's not exactly a visual showpiece, it's charming enough to make you smile like when you're saying the word 'cheese'. In short, this is a fun little timewaster that you're likely to enjoy more than you anticipate – even if you're lactose intolerant.
If you've never played Dishonored then this game should already be in your basket. It's a pristine release that's being saved from fading into history with this re-release and delivers all the content as a thank you. For the double dippers considering this, a stern word of caution. Very little has changed since you left Dunwall but if you really get a kick out of your controller talking to you then by all means, go in for the kill.
Through the combination of a simplistic but phenomenally effective art style and some incredibly fluid dialogue sequences, Firewatch proves itself time and time again as one of the most memorable games we are likely to play in a long while. It's poignant and very special, albeit disappointingly choppy at times. It may feel a touch short, but its story will feel firmly finished upon reflection, remaining naturally entombed in the Wyoming woods. This is a rare game that tackles strong morals and emotions under the guise of a beautiful walk through the wilderness that always manages to keep you on your toes, a walk you'll be hard pressed to ever forget.
If you've never played Drinkbox Studios' delicious platformer before, then this is the best place to start. And, while we'd never recommend double-dipping a nacho in real life, we certainly encourage it with this super-charged adventure.