A lot of Kafka’s spirit shines through in this game with the illogical mixed with the depressingly truthful and real. It’s such a shame then that the Xbox One version is beset with so many technical hiccups that threaten to spoil the narrative. Like so much of Kafka’s work, Metamorphosis feels like it has been left unfinished and in need of a few more weeks of polishing.
Simplistic but fun mini-games can’t quite match the quality of the music they’re accompanying in Teenage Blob, a unique split EP music/game that’s over before it really hits its stride.
As an experience, Milky Way Prince is experimental, entirely unique and one that I’m glad exists. I imagine it’ll hang in the subconscious of most people who give it the time of day, but the subject matter will be too much for some to bear.
While Relicta treads a lot of the same ground as its contemporaries, its high production values and enticing narrative make it a worthwhile, quality entry into the genre. With puzzles that will have you scratching your head for hours and a narrative that encourages you to do so, it’s a smart game that has just a few niggles that do very little to sour the experience.
This remake of Destroy All Humans! is really quite incredible and the developers at Black Forest Games should be applauded for what they’ve achieved. The original has been torn apart and rebuilt with the benefit of modern day visuals and game play design while retaining the game’s original character.
If you like those slide puzzle mini-games you find in many other games, Cubicity is a cutesy, leisurely game built around that core concept. There’s 6 to 8 hours of content in this original package with the hint of more to come later but in less than half of that time, you’ll have seen everything this game has to offer. It’s easy – far too easy for my taste as it becomes boring quickly – but this is a comfortable way to kill an hour or 2 before the monotony sets in.
This game is obviously a labour of love for Spicy Gyro Games. That said, compared to it’s peers in an era when we have retro inspired titles that are actually pushing the genre forward, it doesn’t do enough to look anything other than a pale imitation of the original’s its trying to emulate.
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is more of what worked in the previous games with a handful of new modes and a creation suite. A tactical tower defence game that’ll have you scratching your head combined with an arcade physics derby that’ll have you grinning over the destruction left in your wake, it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s still not perfect but for those who’ve had fun with the previous 2 games, this instalment builds on that formula in the right places.
Snakes and Ladders on PS4 is a functional, child friendly recreation of the timeless board game. It has a few convenient features which make it easy to play and the board you play on has some 3D snakes which give the game personality. For the asking price though, the real world alternative is much cheaper and just as enjoyable. There’s no innovation here and the game doesn’t take the opportunity to explore what a digital Snakes and Ladders could evolve the game into.
The narrative, while eventually realised, takes some odd turns and because the overarching plot spans 40+ hours and is drip fed to you at regular intervals, the pacing can feel slow and disjointed. The transition from PC to PS4 has not been kind on the menu systems either. It’s during combat – a blend of RTS with time stopping/slowing mechanics – that Tower of Time is most unique, really pushing the player to understand the beasts they’re fighting and how best to strategize against them. If you liked the Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights games from the 90’s and have been hankering for something similar and traditional yet modernised, Tower of Time delivers just that.
A colourful third person party shooter with adorable aquatic characters, Otterman Empire is rough around the edges with a tutorial that does more harm than good. The single player and co-op game play flits between fun and pedestrian while the Versus mode might as well be the games saving grace.
An aquatic adventure that tells a powerful story, carries an important message and teaches as well as entertains, Beyond Blue is an excellent game.
A featureless, shallow, bland and thoroughly turgid experience, Sabec’s “Bowling” is poor even compared to the bowling mini-games you find inside other games, like GTA IV. It doesn’t follow the rules of bowling, isn’t fun to play and lacks even a hint of personality.
The concept of Waking is an admirable one. To place the player at the centre of the narrative and mechanics of a game, tailoring it to their choices, is a lofty goal and one that it falls well short of. Rough visuals, clunky and repetitive combat and a narrative that spectacularly misses the emotional connections it attempts to evoke, Waking makes you want to do anything but.
The Anniversary Edition is a much better looking version of the original Edna and Harvey – The Breakout. Despite updated visuals though, there’s still some wrinkles that haven’t been ironed out, notably with sound effects and animations. The move to controller support on consoles has been a little rough on the playability too. The core concept, narrative and personality of the game is quite ingenious but the backtracking, inconsistent lunacy and uniquity of some of the puzzles mean it’s sometimes tough to get through.
The moments of quiet crafting and contemplation in Isle of Spirits is what this game does well. The core loop of collecting a small pool of resources and putting what you can towards a unified goal encourages a chilled out, relaxed experience. Unfortunately that’s often at odds with the core of the game which is filled with cheap perma-death dangers and trial-and-error repetition.
Warborn is a stylish, smartly designed and content packed sci-fi strategy game. The 30~ hour campaign tells a fun narrative, despite a rocky start, that tests the player to overcome a decent variety of foes and puzzle like missions. With a tactical depth that’s immediately clear but surprisingly deep, it’s a joy to play both on and offline. A few niggles aside that could be fixed post release, Warborn is one of the better strategy games you’ll play this year.
A bopping 8-bit soundtrack and an interesting variety in game play-altering hats are the main positives from Many Faces, a retro shooter that’s otherwise short on content and game modes. If you’re hankering for a game that looks like it comes from the late 80’s/early 90’s and can keep you busy for an hour for a few pounds Sterling, that’s what you’ll get here. It is sorely missing multiplayer, leader boards and game modes that could really elevate it to bigger and better things.
When Potata: Fairy Flower is doing what it does best – tense platforming among open, branching levels loaded with danger – it’s excellent. Sure, it can be punishing at times but it has been quite some time since a game made my palms as sweaty as this game did at times. For that, it has to be commended. It’s a shame these moments are offset by meandering, sometimes nonsensical quests coupled with reams of text to read, some of which are confusing, and puzzles which grind the game to a halt. As a melting pot of ideas, a few too many counter-intuitive mechanics rose to the top in Potata: Fairy Flower which wow’s you with its visuals one moment then puts you to sleep with an unnecessary and cumbersome conversation the next.
A Fold Apart ends before it manages to make the most of its genuinely unique puzzle mechanics. It feels like there should have been another chapter to the game, really diving into the ingenious mesh of puzzle elements that too often require little more than a few seconds of trial and error to solve. The story A Fold Apart tells is a powerful one, unfortunately undercut by the way it is delivered at times but a beautiful piano soundtrack and art style that’s deeper than it first appears helps it stick the landing.