Aran Suddi's Reviews
Rack and Slay is a fun twist on the roguelike, with a unique style to it. The challenges and the variety of abilities changes up each run, giving the game some depth, but the enemies come across as basic, and their spawning needs some improvement.
TMNT: Splinted Fate is a fun roguelike and utilises the four Turtles well, with each one having unique abilities. The gameplay is fast paced and does introduce some variety early on, such as Gauntlet challenges. However, the story comes across as stretched out to arbitrarily lengthen a game that consists of four stage and four bosses.
Blacksad is a surprisingly charming interactive tale. John Blacksad is an intriguing character, but open enough that you can shape him. While other characters don't stand out as much, the ensemble brings the story to life. The game suffers from cumbersome movement and a deduction system that's not that interesting to engage with, but, if you love a bit of noir, Blacksad: Under The Skin is well worth the 10-hour playthrough.
Aarik and The Ruined Kingdom is a well crafted and great looking puzzle game that entertains for its 2-3 hour playtime. It is let down by various bugs, like sounds playing unprompted, and the issue of placing objects being more cumbersome than it needs to be. However, for less than £7 it is worth a playthrough if you enjoy perspective shifting puzzle games.
Across its approximately 15 hours of playtime, #Blud offers a fun and straightforward dungeon crawler with a great aesthetic, but it is undone by some bugs that impact the flow of the game, along with some missions that just bring the fun factor right down.
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is an approachable take on the city builder for players of many skill levels. It encourages experimentation with your settlement layout and exploration in the Ursee, but some design decisions don't feel as smooth as they could be, like selecting buildings or interacting with other factions. If you are a city builder fan you can sink hours into this, but do not expect it to have the same depth as others in the genre.
Rise of the Ronin is a massive gamble for Team Ninja, known for its more linear action games, but it's one that has paid off. Rise of the Ronin has a lot of depth to it from the satisfying combat, to all the side activities across three broad regions, and the plethora of excellent characters. This game should mark the start of a grand new era for Team Ninja.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a delightful game, which will please long time Moomin fans, and could introduce the characters to a new audience and generation. The game is wholesome, one for all ages, and addresses the issue of environmentalism in a careful and constructive way. It is definitely worth playing.
If you really like your punishing hack and slash platformers, then Slave Zero X might be for you, but it doesn't feel as rewarding as it should when progress is made. You hardly feel like the killing machine you are as you run into difficulty spikes, and the near constant swarms of enemies just gets a bit dull when you are not learning any new techniques to fight them.
Anomaly Agent is a fun and furious action platformer, mixing fast-paced combat with an awesome soundtrack.
The Legend of Steel Empire is a fun side-scrolling shooter set in an interesting alternate history timeline. The gameplay is easy to get to grips with, allowing people of all skill levels to deal with enemies. However, the short length of the campaign is not truly worth the asking price, so I'd recommend waiting for a sale to pick it up.
Lil Guardsman's mix of border control and adventure is a whole heap of fun, with genuine comedic moments combined with great acting. There are a few issues with the story, with the occasional inconsistency or predictable moment, but all in all this is a great addition to the genre.
The Cub is a really good platformer with an excellent use of the soundtrack to really immerse you into the world. While some platforming bits are a little frustrating, overall the experience is tight with a smooth flow. The story is engaging, the world interesting to explore, and the themes touching on climate change and how society deals with it relevant.
nGolf is one of those games that will fly by without much, if any fanfare. It offers a competent mini-golf game, but there have been others that have been more challenging and entertaining. It is not worth the full price, but at a steep discount it's a charming choice if you really need to play through some simple golf puzzles.
Yuki's Wish and Zagan's Ritual are two good pieces of DLC that adds to the overall lore and gameplay of Shadow Gambit. Both provide quite a few additional hours of content, with six missions each, plus their badges to earn too. If I were to pick one of the two to go with first it would be Yuki's Wish.
Worldless is a fun and challenging action platformer that has a great minimalist style, and a battle system that is fun to master. However, there are bits that need tightening up to make it truly great.
SteamWorld Build will scratch that itch of town builder and dungeon crawler alike. It's an easy game to pick up and play, gradually introducing each layer of society and underground mining at a steady pace. A few elements could be improved to help levels flow better, but overall it's a very good experience that digs up yet another new genre for the SteamWorld franchise.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is a fun blend of visual novel and combat, with a decent and well-written story and very good artwork alongside. The combat is good too and the whole package really adds to Invincible lore, even if it is not canon.
There's a lot of depth to Football Manager 2024, but how deep you go is up to you. You can sit back and just focus on the basics of the match day and transfers, or you can all the way to managing individual player training and using the new player targets feature Whatever approach you choose, Football Manager 2024 offers a near full package to start or continue your managerial career.
The Invincible is a novel brought to life, blending its story and stunning visuals with engaging exploration. The Invincible goes back to the roots of sci-fi, offering something both classic and new when it comes to exploring the relationship between humanity and the final frontier.