Loot Scoot and boogie
I really enjoyed the time I spent with Metal Gear Survive along the 47 hours finishing the main story. With that said let's dive into Metal Gear Survive and what it does.
The basis of the game is great, I love underwater survival style games, and while this one doesn't have any survival gameplay mechanics per-say it most certainly is a story about your survival.
Subnautica also features the single best soundtrack I've heard in the last 5 years. Every track is crafted with care, fits the area and environment. I honestly felt there was someone adapting the music to my every move.
Finally came Call Of Duty WW2 and I thought, here is maybe where they go back to their roots, they show us that they are listening to these reviews, and the comments of their fan base...Nope...Not at all…
We had a chance to check out the game Inmates from Iceberg Interactive and I personally got mixed results. I like the story line and the game concepts, psychological horror is one of my favorite types. It allows you to question what is real, what isn’t and tricks the game is trying to play on you. This game has a lot of those elements with puzzles to solve and a plot that can be finished in around 3-4 hours. However where the game shines in the idea department the execution of these idea is what I found lacking.
The Town Of Light is an atmospheric horror game set in the 1930s-40’s and explores the horrors of mental illness and pre-professional health care. The game has no zombies or action, but instead follows along something like Dear Esther or one of the “walking” simulators. The game takes place in Italy and features native voice acting, as well as english to deliver the heavy narrative which follows Renee’ as she struggles to find what is real what isn’t. Moving through several locations and exploring the now abandoned mental institution showcases different aspects of how someone can remember something in opposition to actual events.
The survival game ARK: Survival Evolved released recently with a bunch of interesting and fun features. The survival crafting game does a lot more than other games in this genre, having actual end game, and reason to be doing the things you are. Ark boasts a huge diverse roster of dinosaurs, and biomes with multiple “Arks” to play on for free and more coming via DLC.
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is the next installment in the Ghost Warrior franchise. It offers a host of new features and a vast sandbox to explore. With a story that offers some great twists and turns Sniper Ghost Warrior is engaging and will keep you interested in playing. With the new additions the game still isn't as triple A as it wants to be, there is some serious lack of polish in some areas.
Rising Storm 2 is next up in the Red Orchestra series, bringing the fight into Vietnam. With this I want to clarify that this is not a brand new installment in the franchise but more like a standalone expansion pack. It brings period weapons, equipment and vehicles into a Red Orchestra setting. Rising Storm 2 features 2 factions with 2 sub groups in each, the USMC, US Army, NVA, and Viet Cong forces. With the amount of factions, I did expect a few more gear options, here I found a small lack in gearing choices. I would have liked a few more weapons and choices here. The game also offers you cosmetic choices in the form of clothing options, camo, helmets, tattoos and more. This adds a nice touch and can create some awesome looking squads and teams.
The game-play of endless space is easy to pick up for RTS vets but will offer a challenge to newcomers. The game looks beautiful and its menus are easy to get lost in. With different ways to play from playing the marketplace to building a huge military Endless Space 2 can really be and play the way you want. Graphically the game is amazing, lots of great animations with battles and scans of the planets as well as the overall map world looks so great.
The game wastes no time diving you into a blood soaked desert filled with crazy cultists and weird happenings. The main mechanics revolve around you reaching the end of the game while recording and documenting the events around you. Filling everything you can and piecing the story together. This differs slightly from the original game where recording and event can be viewed on your camera with a dialog over the event. Outlast 2 really tried to up the game of its storytelling and I like that.
Hitman is the next installment into the Hitman franchise. It's a call back to its roots and ditches the over dramatic and gimmicky installments we have been seeing. I.O Interactive has tried to make a turn in what we are getting from Hitman. We interviewed the voice of Hitman last year about the game, and he explained his newest role in the game. While there isn't as much dialog or story we are seeing in some of the older games, there is a return to the Hitman feel of the first games.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is a great game, with a beautiful open world and authentic-style Ghost Recon gameplay. It is worth a buy and I do recommend it to anyone thinking about getting the game. Just understand it isn't perfect and there will be frustrating times in the game. The good news is when you really get into it, you will find yourself setting up for the perfect stealth mission, or a giant fire fight and you will stop just for a second and say damn this is awesome.
Resident Evil 7 is looking to take you back, to a better time in gaming. One where simple game design mixed with a good story and evolving mechanics over the course of the game. It does most of these things pretty well. Overall Resident Evil 7 (RE7) is a great game. It's really an interesting time, making you rethink situations and what you can do in the game world, while keeping the ending from getting stale and repetitive.
No Man's Sky, developed by Hello games and published by Sony is finally here. No doubt plenty of you are and have been playing the game since its release, so is the HYPE train real? I'm not so sure, however I will say I never nor anyone I work with hyped the game up. We understood that this was an indie game with a cool concept being backed by a large publisher. Other people seemed to have blown what No Man's Sky is doing out of proportion due to the fact it was backed by Sony.