InkSplosion is fast fun but due to the lack of content and simplistic design, gets boring within an hour. The only positive selling points are a decent soundtrack and the fact that, for trophy hunters, it’s a quick and easy Platinum to unlock (much like many other titles from Ratalaika Games) but these are not enough to drag InkSplosion out of mediocrity.
A number of glitches and the occasional obtuse plot point stop Vampyr from truly exceeding expectations but it’s a well crafted, expertly designed game that’ll likely be talked about for many months to come.
Shift Quantum might not feature the most original aesthetic and feels only half committed to its narrative elements but those are only small drawbacks to an otherwise brilliant game. This is a puzzle game that's full of moments that'll make you feel like a genius, will make you say "Of course! Why didn't I see it before" and manages to curb the difficulty throughout just before it becomes frustrating. If you like a good headscratcher, I highly recommend Shift Quantum.
If you were to compare Space Hulk: Deathwing Enhanced Edition to many other modern day first person shooters at face value, it’d come up short in almost every regard. It’s clunky, slow paced, stereotypical and corny in the extreme but for those gamers who also have a love for 28-millimetre tall Space Marines and the world in which they wage war, this game offers something more. Space Hulk: Deathwing makes very little effort to be accessible to those who don’t know a foam sword from a power sword, instead opting to attempt to be the most authentic recreation of Space Marine Terminator combat to date.
A combination of roguelike repetition and a shallow plot line might have been enough to derail EverSpace had it not been for the enticing game play cycle, slick space combat and a balanced progression system which keeps you coming back for more. There’s a solid 20 hours of content here (at a leisurely pace, I hasten to add) but the game fills those hours with clutch moments of survival that tell their own story set among some stunning celestial vistas. EverSpace is far more accessible than Elite: Dangerous, is more enjoyable than Dreadnought and is among the most visually arresting space based games on Sony’s 8th generation console.
Deep Ones is one of the most unintuitive games I’ve ever played that’s constantly undermining itself whenever it starts to become enjoyable.
Omensight is a 3D action adventure game that has all the hallmarks of a PlayStation 2 3D action adventure made in the heyday of the genre but with the benefit of 20 years in technological and design advancements to spruce it up. Some occasional frame drops, a little bit of repetition and some occasional dodgy camera angles aside, Omensight is an edge-of-the-seat adventure that is hard to put down from the start until the credits roll.
Crypt of the Serpent King might come with a small price tag but like some many other things in life, you get what you pay for.
It might lack a little originality but The Adventure Pals is a lighthearted adventure that’s as fun and as eccentric as its obvious inspirations.
As Found Phone games go, Simulacra is one of the better ones. The dialogue is well implemented, the puzzles all play on the players in-built knowledge of how mobile phones work and there’s this disconcerting atmosphere to the whole experience.
Swords of Ditto doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. The roguelite mechanics have been done many times before, the procedural generation has been done before, the limited in-game play time has been done before and the dungeon diving has been around for more than 2 decades. What Sword of Ditto does do differently, however, is wrap all of this together for the first time in such a neat “compact” package that’s bursting with charm and insane amounts of polish. Strangely, while Swords of Ditto borrows the best bits of those that came before it, the combined complexities that they give this game make it feel as original as any of its forebears. Its unforgiving streak aside, Swords of Ditto is a very good game indeed.
Little Adventure on the Prairie is quite possibly the worst game you’ll ever pay for.
Midnight Deluxe is a very good example of a developer taking elements of a game that already exists and reworking them into something much better than the original. Almost everything you see on screen will look familiar to those who’ve played 36 Fragments of Midnight but it hardly matters when the game play is so utterly divorced from its predecessor. This is an atmospheric, relaxing and surprisingly enjoyable game about shooting a box into a hole.
A sublime concoction of old school RPG’s and an innovative idea, Minit is a bloomin’ brilliant game.
The fifth and final episode of Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within AKA Same Stitch secures the series as a triumph in narrative design and the greatest re-imagining of the Joker to date.
A re-skin of ★★★★★ 1000 Top Rated, Slyde is a “buy-a-Plat” game that’s dressed up as a glitch riddled slider puzzle. The Finger Guns Review
Fortunately, the typical NIS charm and tight, top down dungeon battling are enough to carry Penny Punching Princess, despite the drawbacks with its greatest feature. If you’ve got slender, nimble fingers, you might get a lot more out of this title that I but even with those issues, there’s more good than bad with this cash guzzling revenge trip.
Assault Gunner HD Edition is a game filled with substandard visuals, repetitive, unvaried game play and a plethora of small niggles which really mount up. The game might have received some positive reviews on the PSVita but the jet boost to the West and to the PS4 has not been kind on this game.
Episode 1 of the Council AKA The Mad Ones sets out to subvert the status quo of narrative based adventures but stumbles on some of the basics.
So QUBE 2 is a smart, deeply satisfying puzzle game that makes you feel like a genius at times. It has a well thought out and implemented plot too. It’s just a shame that it’s so short lived, leaving you begging for more when the credits roll.