Matt Gardner's Reviews
Infamous First Light packs a whole bunch of content in at a decent price, and fleshes out Second Son's most interesting character in fine fashion, with a sibling story that tugs at the heartstrings thanks to another great performance from Bailey. It's an extension, perhaps, more than an expansion -- more of the same sort of thing, but with a slightly different flavour -- but given how much fun Second Son was, that's no bad thing.
This is the Metro experience how it was meant to be. With 2033 brought up to parity with its successor in terms of visual aspects and a smoother stealth experience, 2033 and Last Light come together to form a glorious whole that's more atmospheric than ever, giving a second chance to one of the most striking and original shooters out there. Essential stuff, especially on console, for fans and newcomers alike.
Should you by it? Well, to be brutally honest, it's a game that would be perfect as a PlayStation Plus curio, and I'm pretty sure that we'll see it there at some point down the line. I found it to be odd and empty with moments of fleeting magic at first. But the more I stopped analysing it and let myself simply play, the more I began to delight in the little sprites, their little animations, the detail to the worlds, the beautiful music that perfectly compliments the fluidity of movement by the long-mover (I still prefer rainbow worm).
MIND: Path to Thalamus is an engaging game for the most part, rife with thought-provoking themes and motifs, beautiful settings, and plenty of allegorical symbolism to aid its emotionally-charged narrative. It's just a shame that instead of entrusting the game's narrative to those elements, Coronado opts to spell things out with overwrought exposition and questionable monologues that ultimately serve to remove the game's emotional impact. It's a striking, ambitious game, and one that's certainly not lacking in vision, but unfortunately its one major flaw is a big one.
Take no note of the name, it's not an RPG, it's a fairly mindless brawler, and a mediocre one at that.
For a game that bears the name of a remarkable writer, Wayward Manor ultimately proves rather unremarkable thanks to clunky mechanics, repetitive puzzles, and a story that seems a little too thin.
Gods Will Be Watching is an interesting experiment -- a game that puts a fresh new spin on PnC conventions and delivers are pretty unique experience. But its lack of narrative impact, its ultimately empty moral decisions, dependence on trial and error, and tendencies towards deliberate frustration rather than challenging fun make it something of a flawed curiosity piece rather than anything else.
Unrest is a game both fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Its foundations as a communication-focussed, character-driven RPG with a unique setting and multiple perspectives on a situation of civil unrest are incredibly interesting, but ultimately the game can't quite bring it all together and the end result is something of a rushed piece with unrealised potential. Refreshing, certainly, but sadly flawed.
An incredibly deep and engaging RPG, Larian have delivered one of the finest RPGs of the last decade in a paean to player choice and freedom, all presented with the knowing smile and cheeky wink we've come to expect from them. Divinity: Original Sin might prove a little overwhelming for some, but old-school RPG fans will absolutely adore this.
Boasting two wonderfully-realised new faction, each with their own distinct strengths and weaknesses, The Western Front Armies is a cracking digital proposition for newcomers and veterans alike. But if you're not bothered about the new content and just want to sample COH2, be aware that hard copies for the base game run cheaper than this.
Entwined has a running time of an hour, yet barely sustains interest for that long. There's a good idea at the core of this wannabe indie darling and the "apart" stages can be fairly engrossing the first time around, but unfortunately the substance is just as minimalist as the style. Worth checking out in a sale or on PS Plus, but probably one to skip at £6.49.
I wanted to love this game so very much, and the ideas behind it are innovative and interesting and far too good to deserve a mediocre showing such as this. But sadly that's exactly what Murdered: Soul Suspect is to be honest. Pretty mediocre.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is big, dumb, fun no matter how much MachineGames might have tried to force it to be otherwise. The alternative history explored here is fascinating, if a little under-explored, but it's the boom and the blast that'll keep FPS fans coming back. A respectably lengthy game with modern looks but buckets of old-school spirit, The New Order is a silly, inconsistent, overblown treat. But give it a couple of weeks.
Always Sometimes Monsters is a fascinating, utterly engrossing morality play, delivered as a Game Maker adventure that constantly asks questions of the player. There have been games that deal with difficult decisions before, but perhaps none so deftly as this. Always Sometimes Monsters is a marvel.
Bound By Flame wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and its chest, and its legs, borrowing cues from pretty much every ARPG around. Its an earnest attempt by Spiders, as are most of their games, but the elements here feel slapdash and dishevelled. At best, Bound By Flame might offer a spot of B-movie-esque filler while you wait for Dragon Age and The Witcher III. At worst, it's a clunky, hot mess of a game with an over-inflated price and little to offer of any distinction.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a brave attempt at combining two seemingly polar opposites, but it ultimately fails to build a continuously compelling world, compromising too much on either side. It's an MMO that can't hold a candle to likes of Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World, and an Elder Scrolls game that can't hope to be as deep and rich in content and solo experience as Morrowind and Skyrim. The allure of an online Tamriel is strong, and when the game's disparate parts align, it really is a bit special, but those moments are too few and far between to recommend for a game with this much of an inflated price point.
Warlock II: The Exiled is a game that stands on the shoulders of its predecessor rather than blazing a trail, but that's okay. What Ino-Co have given us here is an incredibly solid, hex-based strategy title that provides a great entry point to the series (and the genre, to be honest), with enough here to keep fans engaged for several thousand turns.
Goat Simulator serves up a tiny, but pretty dense, sandbox stuffed with slapstick goofs and anarchic, broken comedy. It isn't much of a game, particularly for £6-8, but it's one hell of a joke.
Though it presents a strikingly unique aesthetic and a daringly open invitation to the player to piece together a mysterious narrative for themselves, Betrayer is ultimately a bit of a disappointment thanks to uneven pacing, inconsistent mechanics, and a world and story that just aren't particularly interesting. In the end, Betrayer assumes a little too much and works too little for the player's interest, which is a shame because it ultimately makes a rather striking game all too easy to walk away from early on.
In many ways, inFamous: Second Son is a lot like its sales rival Titanfall -- it doesn't do much that's new, but rather refines and polishes and balances everything that came before in expert fashion, providing new little twists and expanding in areas that had the scope for it to deliver a blockbuster experience that rarely lets you down.