Gary Alexander
A demo that should have been free instead costs $6.99 on the Playstation Store. Whether judged as a game or a chance to explore the Ghostbusters firehouse, it’s not worth it.
I really wanted to like Yooka-Laylee. I don’t. Instead of taking a beloved style of game and updating it for modern times (à la Doom last year), Playtonic essentially created a game that could have been from 1998 and released it in 2017. The result is a mess of poorly implemented game mechanics that the games industry fixed two decades ago.
Rain World is so very close to being something special. Its aesthetic is haunting and its dynamic AI creates a world that feels real, as opposed to one that exists purely for you to overcome its challenges. Unfortunately it’s a game undone by poorly implemented controls and a series of strange design decisions that undermine the type of game it wants to be.
Old Time Hockey is a great concept poorly executed. It’s marred by some dodgy controls and a series of baffling design decisions. What could have been a neat throwback to old fashioned hockey is instead a massively missed opportunity.
Micro Machines World Series sees the franchise attempt to make the move into the competitive online multiplayer scene. But rather than do so by leveraging its strengths and the gameplay modes series fans enjoy playing, Codemasters have focused on a dull game mode that feels out of place with the rest of the franchise.
Has Been Heroes is an ultimately frustrating game. There’s the core of a great idea here with the lane-based strategic combat. Unfortunately developers Frozenbyte have piled on too many complicated systems for it to ever feel fun.
With just a little bit more variety and a lot less repetition, Agents of Mayhem could have been an entertaining game. It’s not a bad game, nor is it a particularly good one. There were pockets of fun in the game, for sure, but this is a mostly forgettable experience.
Drawn To Death is an interesting idea that has been poorly implemented. The art style is fantastic to look at, but it’s at odds with the gameplay and isn’t helped by a lacklustre HUD.
Urban Empire is a game with a lot of promise that ultimately lets itself down due to a lack of depth in its core mechanics. While there are probably hundreds of ways each mechanic connects with each other, these connections are never explained to players, making the whole game feel inconsistent.
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is a decent Musou-style action game with a few drawbacks that can dull the experience. While the game’s story is kind of interesting, it’s weighed down by some clunky, poorly written dialogue.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a very monotonous game. Solid gameplay mechanics quickly give way to empty repetition as the game never really varies its core gameplay loop at all during its running time. Regardless of your specific mission objectives, you’ll never break free from the endless cycle of clearing out buildings populated by the same enemies you were fighting ten hours ago.
There’s the core of a great game here, and it’s still fun to smash a car into oncoming traffic and watch the ensuing chaos. But the game is focused on the wrong things, specifically its Smashbreaker and aftertouch mechanics, instead of just dumping you into a simulation of a motorway and told to go nuts. There’s still fun to be had in Danger Zone, but it’s unfortunately held back by this misplaced focus.
Little Nightmares is an excellent experience wrapped in a fairly frustrating game. The world that Tarsier Studios have constructed is excellent – trading on its dollhouse-like environments, terrifying antagonists and incredible audio to create an incredibly atmospheric and disturbing horror game. But this otherwise great presentation is let down badly by poorly implemented gameplay and a story that feels like it goes nowhere.
RiME is a beautiful game. There's no denying that its visuals are stunning and the soundtrack is fantastic. The presentation is spot on. Unfortunately the game that lies within this audiovisual marvel is lacking.
World to the West is a pretty good adventure held back by some fairly annoying flaws.
There’s an interesting premise at the heart of What Remains of Edith Finch – explore a house and get to know a bunch of characters by invading their personal space and seeing how they died. And the short stories themselves can be interesting, particularly the shifts and changes they bring to the otherwise standard first-person gameplay. But there’s very little attempt made outside of these short stories to actually connect the player with its many subjects. Too often I felt like I was simply going through the motions.
Once Firis has passed the exam and the game drops the time limit, Atelier Firis turns into a pretty good JRPG with some deep crafting mechanics but a fairly lacklustre combat system. To get to this point, however, requires a fairly substantial time commitment.