John Little's Reviews
Its main issues surround a lack of depth and some repetitive design, but while also a little irritating in places, the gameplay is solid and engaging. The aesthetic, sound design and premise are top notch, and I think if you’re interested in a simple dungeon crawler, then Brut@l can provide a great time for you.
It’s a pretty good concept and theme, and the most stand out feature of Tom vs the Armies of Hell is its sense of humour surrounding this. The writing is top notch, and the narrated cut scenes I found to be a surprising hit. It’s a shame the actual gameplay sections only feature text dialogue,
The combat is satisfying and full of strategy, the world is interesting and visually pleasing – the whole steampunk, western, space aesthetic is great, and even extends to the music with the band Steam Powered Giraffe providing the saloon band style soundtrack – and the story is quirky and comes with a nice twist.
I’d say overall, Overfall struggles to make a great lasting impression, but I think it’s enjoyable and deep enough to stand out, and despite its flaws is certainly worth a bash if you’re interested in this broad genre.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is a really intriguing title, and, as far as I'm concerned (and despite it's flaws), is a worthy investment, but its choice making narrative needed to offer a bit more to really make an impact. As it stands, the game feels a bit shallow.
Republique is a passionately delivered title, albeit with some annoyances, but has a great story to back it up and some serviceable stealth gameplay.
I found the tone was dropped a touch due to the shooting sections, and some of the more frustrating dialogue and choices created a rather chaotic experience. It’s also a damn shame that the game holds back on the investigations, since they're the best thing about this series. Hopefully episode three will be a little less silly and start playing to its own strengths.
Lumo has bags of charm, and I’m actually quite impressed with the overall presentation and the variety of puzzles and platforming challenges, but it’s very hard to forgive for those clunky, inaccurate moments. The game became less enjoyable the more I played it, and the knowledge of that destroys any enthusiasm I might have had for playing it again
The game is rugged in some departments and a little less ambitious than I had previously thought it would be, but Soul Axiom is still a well put together and intriguing experience. It's a cool world filled with sparkly tech surroundings, a multitude of far ranging level environments and some really enjoyable puzzle solving.
The positives almost make up for the negatives, but the game lets itself down in one crucial area. It's way too short. A shame because the puzzling and exploration is good enough to warrant more of it, and the title is mostly pretty enjoyable and engaging.
If the game was a bit more forgiving then the changing level mechanics and hyper presentation wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately it isn't. It's bloody tough, and there are no difficulty options to alleviate this. But I don't know, maybe I'm just a noob and can't handle the stress. Maybe those rhythm elite will find a challenge here that they can't find elsewhere. Because otherwise the game is pretty solid.
There must have been more the developers could have done with the game to keep it going for longer, and considering some of the repetitiveness and a lack of interesting levels, I think they definitely should have. But otherwise, the game is well worth a look for any shooter or bullet hell fans. It's exciting and enjoyably challenging with an aesthetic and mechanical twist that sets it apart from the plethora of other shooters available.
Broforce is quite literally a blast to play. It has the humour down, the exhilarating precise combat and level design, the enemy variation, and not to mention a plethora of content to get stuck into.
Sitting at an hour and a half with little replayability, it's a struggle to recommend. I did enjoy the story, and the gameplay shows some creativity, but it has an air of lacking content and unfinished design, and at £6.99 I'm not sure it's worth it.
I think the game has some unique spins on the episodic adventure genre. The shooting is a bit simplistic, but definitely adds some excitement; and I cannot wait to do some more investigating. It's just a shame the rest of the game is a little bland.
It's not a perfect game – it can be frustrating and needlessly complicated at times – but the story, aesthetic, top notch voice acting and sound track, and creative inspiration more than make up for it.
If the mechanics were tighter and there was a bit more actual gameplay, then I would give this a more general recommendation, but as it is, only buy if you can tolerate lacking gameplay for story and setting.
It's more like a tech demo than a fully-fledged game (albeit one with a decent, fully realised story). It shows that voice controls can benefit an RTS title, and that games that strive for that 'narrative experience' can also have compelling gameplay; but it never reaches its full potential.
There's not much in the way of story to talk about (a cat decides to play a video game of itself saving ducks, what more do you want?), but the gameplay is solid all round. The aesthetic is cheery and exciting, the music pumping and catchy, and there is enough content to keep you going.
A sequel that expanded and improved in all the right places, and avoided the temptation of fixing things that weren't broken.