Stefan L's Reviews
Bright Memory: Infinite is a matured version of the original Bright Memory, stripping away some of that game's excesses for a more put-together experience. That said, the story is still complete insanity (that's barely acknowledged by the characters), and it's clear that this solo production cannot match its boundless ambition.
Bright Memory is a rare good-bad game that's enjoyable partly because of its oddities and flaws, but there's signs that its sequel Bright Memory Infinite could actually just be good.
Struggling is a mess. While I can't fault the controls themselves, the object physics are just not reliable enough in crucial areas, as the momentum when using some objects is too chaotic to reliably make progress. Unless you have the patience of a saint or an online audience eager to see your reactions as you're battling through, this is probably not the game for you.
There's some good ideas in how PlayLink can be used to let a group of players (and non-gamers in particular) join together and shape a filmic story, but the actual interface feels clumsy, and the story and scripting leaves plenty to be desired. It's safe to say that Hidden Agenda is an obvious disappointment.
Flawed and often out of touch, Syberia 3 only serves a dedicated clutch of fans that have spent the past decade looking for closure to a beloved series. To anyone else, it will come across as a bizarre and mostly impenetrable relic that feels out of place among 2017's slate of releases.
Unfortunately, Fat Princess Adventures comes across as something of a missed opportunity. For one thing, it's a genre shift which will disappoint those who want more of the multiplayer carnage from the original, but while there's still fun to be had, this is a fairly shallow game which leans too close to the childlike facade of the art style.
Space Hulk: Deathwing does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but it doesn't manage to wrap that around a compelling co-op shooter. The missions are ponderous, the story already forgotten, and the core gunplay leaves something to be desired. Those with a fondness for Games Workshop or fraught co-op action will have wanted this to be great, but it's merely OK.
MotoGP 15 is still an accomplished racer, but it offers little to draw fans in, compared to last year's entry. There's a few nice touches, like having your own team in career mode, and the bike racing still manages to strike a balance between being accessible and being very challenging, but from the all-too-familiar double loading screens to the lacklustre environments and beyond, we're still waiting for Milestone to fully take advantage of the latest generation of consoles.
Millennia is a 4X game that's bursting with new ideas and ways to tackle the historical strategy genre. I enjoyed how regions grow and sprawl across the map, the management that this provides, and the alt-history ages provide some fun twists on reality, but Millennia also comes up short in some key areas and a number of concepts aren't fully explored. In particular, the aesthetics of the UI and the combat visualisation are very rough, the diplomacy lacking and there's certainly areas that C Prompt can and will hopefully improve.
While it's been pleasing to see Nintendo revitalise certain parts of their back catalogue, Mario vs. Donkey Kong feels a bit dated, despite the modern graphics. I just wish there had been a slightly grander effort to modernise the feel of the game.
Somerville is a fantastically evocative game as it depicts an everyman's journey through a War of the Worlds-like alien invasion, leaning on countless sci-fi tropes and ideas along the way. Disappointingly, it's undercut on a number of levels by controls and a detached feeling and hastiness with some parts of the story it's telling.
Serial Cleaners comes with a new style and attitude, taking inspiration from some of the great crime films of the 80s and 90s to tell a four-sided tale. It's an enjoyable return for the original game's quirky take on crime scene cleaning, but only takes a few small steps forward, leaving the limits of its stealth-action gameplay evident to see.
Outriders Worldslayer brings a fresh campaign and endgame to People Can Fly's game, but likely won't move the needle for those not already gripped by this third person looter shooter. The chaotic front-foot combat is fun, the boss battles challenging, and some of the weapons and abilities gloriously excessive, but many of the underlying flaws remain.
GRID Legends builds on the foundations of the 2019 reboot, improving the driving experience in certain areas, adding a big new story mode, and throwing more variables and variety into the mix. There's enjoyable, pulpy action racing to be had here, but some of the fundamental weaknesses from the last game remain, and as the racing game community increasingly looks toward sim racing, it feels like this franchise is in need of another reinvention.
Annihilation Line is a good DLC expansion, but will do nothing to change your mind about Terminator: Resistance. If you enjoyed the setting and the gunplay then there is more here to get stuck into, but there is no deviation from the core gameplay to be found. Not quite 'I'll be back', but neither is it 'Hasta la Vista'.
There's a good game to be found within the Battlefield 2042 and fun to be had as the spectacle of Battlefield's signature gameplay is taken to new, more expansive heights, but it's marred by a handful of unsuccessful gameplay design changes, hurriedly implemented features and bugs at launch.
Filled with the same style of ridiculous surgical antics as the original, Surgeon Simulator 2 does a remarkably good job of expanding it into an inventive puzzle game. The "simulator" genre's brand of obtuse controls and fussy physics objects starts to feel like a chore as you get a few levels in, but share the experience with some friends and there's a good time to be had.
Beyond A Steel Sky has an enjoyable tale to tell that compliments the original game, building a newer, more modern dystopia atop the foundations of the Union City of old. It's just a shame that it's so rough around the edges.
Golf With Your Friends has all the rage-inducing charms of minigolf to savour while playing with your chums. With plenty of varied courses to play through and some good variations, there's a lot of fun to be had, even if the game often feels inconsistent and unpolished.
Transference's inventively spins its story of obsession and broken families into a game that's all about perception and twisted realities. It's not entirely successful, failing to confront the topics it raises and failing to live up to its Hollywood billing and origins, but it's still deeply atmospheric as you flick between realities, solve puzzles and figure out the lengths to which Raymond Hayes would truly go.