John Little
- Silent Hill 2
- Total War: Shogun 2
- Doom 3
John Little's Reviews
A curious premise with some initially interesting puzzling ideas, but ultimately a messy, clunky and frustrating experience.
Iron Fish looked promising all the way up until its release. A mixture of underwater exploration and spooky thriller mystery. There was plenty of potential here. However, sloppy gameplay design and tedious, frustrating mechanics ultimately let it down.
The game had a lot of potential and some really cool ideas, but it messes up so badly with the janitor and some clunky design that it’s virtually irredeemable.
A basic action RPG that's not without it's charm. Boss fights are an interesting mix of action and bullet hell, however the rest of the game is simplistic and becomes tedious. Players who aren't already familiar with other Touhou games may find this difficult to get in to.
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,
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.
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.
Wayward Manor, despite offering some cheap thrills, is irrefutably unpolished and lacks the variation, complexity and challenge that could have made this game a genuine treat.
I'm ambivalent about its intentional uselessness as a means of creating humour, and the objective consequences of this. It's a game that succeeds at being defective – take from that what you will.
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.
The Mooseman is a solid, short adventure with an interesting aesthetic and subject. It will be a bit simplistic for some people's liking, but if you can get past that (and the abstract nature of the narrative) then the game's presentation of this curious ancient mythology is sure to hold your interest.
Nightfall continues the shadow based stealth of the original Aragami, providing a generally well made expansion. However it's brevity is an issue, and ultimately the game doesn't offer anything new or interesting.
Yonder had the potential for a lot, but ultimately disappointed in the key areas of farming and crafting. There needed to be more in this game. As it is, it's enjoyable as a casual resource/management adventure, but not much else.
A very challenging game with some good ideas and a cool aesthetic, but some imprecise controls and heavy handed difficulty sour the experience.
Leaving Lyndow initially sets a worrying proposal. An exploration game (read: walking simulator), and a run time of less than an hour. But there’s more to Leaving Lyndow than you may initially think, and ultimately it does what it does pretty well.
An endearing experience, though unfortunately not without its flaws. Far too short and badly paced, but if you can get past that, the world and art is gorgeous and there are some enjoyable puzzles on offer.
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
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's not much replayability on offer and it won't last you very long, but Cross of the Dutchman is a cheap title with a handful of thrills. It's mediocre in many respects, but I'd say it at least does the trick for a short adventure.
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.