Adrian Burrows's Reviews
If you're someone who lives a life of danger, if everyone you meet is a stranger or perhaps you find that with every move you make another chance you take, then Phantom Doctrine is ideal for you. For everyone else, this is a deep and compelling tactical strategy game that provides innovation in a stagnant genre. I'll be playing it long after I've finished reviewing it, and I can think of no higher praise than that.
Ink Stories should be congratulated on their tackling of a much misunderstood historical event and doing so with such accuracy, clarity and impartiality. However, with a glut of gameplay issues and a short game length that prevents the opportunity to explore some interesting ideas further, there's far too much incentive to give 1979 Revolution: Black Friday a miss. This is best viewed as an educational tool, rather than a satisfying interactive experience in its own right.
Blacksea Odyssey suffers from a poorly implemented rogue-lite structure. Putting aside the duff controls, the main hindrance to your enjoyment will be having to suffer through levelling up the player character in a near endless slog until the game finally becomes fun.
Shio is not a game for the faint of heart. Tremendously challenging, it truly will push you to the limit of your videogame abilities. The stunning level design, clear visuals and wonderfully tight controls all ensure that the game is fair, but that won't be enough to stop player frustration from ultimately setting in. Played in short sittings this is a taught, tight and compelling experience. Just have an extra controller nearby, you'll need it to replace the one you just threw out the window.
Somewhere, deep in the heart of Subaeria, there is an exciting and action packed puzzle game. Unfortunately, just like the dystopian underwater world the game presents, it is so deeply submerged that you'd never see it from the surface. Rather than the deep blue ocean though, it is a roguelite structure that hides what works about Subaeria, rendering its achievements impotent with toxic pacing and progression issues. It's a shame, as Subaeria showed promise.
In the competitive world of online multiplayer, a game must be special to stand out from the crowd. Disco Dodgeball Remix stands out for all the wrong reasons. It proves itself to be a nice idea stretched to breaking point and beyond. I played it, so you don't have to.
Whilst not as divisive as the film they are based on, The Last Jedi tables are certainly polar opposites. You'll find an incredible cinematic pinball experience with the Last Jedi table, but the Ankh-To Island table just gives you good reason to keep on playing The Last Jedi table instead! Overall, with one good table and one poor one, this new pack feels too insubstantial to be a must have.
Unresponsive combat, atrocious platforming and game breaking bugs, crashes and frame rate issues ensures that Dusty and his cohort will soon be gathering dust on player's shelves.
There are several issues marring The Adventure Pals that prevent it receiving my whole-hearted recommendation. Yet, despite these problems, I very much enjoyed my time in its zany embrace. Its quirky characters, breezy story and colourful game world proved to be enchanting, while its solid platforming and combat mechanics, in conjunction with local co-op play, kept me on my couch till the end of the story. If you have a pal to go adventuring with, then The Adventure Pals is well worth a look.
This is the arcade game the 12-year-old version of you was always meant to play. Fast, frantic, outrageously challenging and with the sort of free-form play that requires and rewards player creativity. Infinite State Games have created something very special here. I'll see you in the skies, just try and beat my high score.
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is a unique videogame experience and one that you will likely either love or hate. It is not a title that will challenge you with compelling play, but it will provide you with the chance to play. It's attempts to be a ‘zen experience' are only half-successful, thanks to some frustrating controls, yet there is an arresting charm to the game that cannot be denied. If you're looking for a videogame to experience alongside your meditative or mindfulness training, then Jettomero is eminently suitable.
Thanks to its derivative nature, Q.U.B.E. 2 never quite escapes the shadow cast by Portal. There's too many similarities within its core mechanics, structure, and themes for it to stand alone entirely. And yet, once the player accepts that, they will find a compelling puzzler. There's roughly five to six hours of gameplay here and, once Q.U.B.E. 2 is completed, little reason to return to its embrace. Yet whilst it burns it does so brightly, compelling the player to the end with several puzzles that equal Valve's best.
If you can look past the numerous bugs and glitches, then you'll find an essential experience for any fan of Assassin's Creed: Origins.
Slice, Dice & Rice is an extremely competent fighting game. The core mechanics are sound, its visually interesting and it rewards strategic play. It's just a shame that there's no one out there to fight against online.
It's been quite a start to the year with the sheer videogame quality on show in 2018. Aegis Defenders is a title that totally delivers on its initial concept. It's a game that built on the obvious passion of the developers, resulting in something that's vibrant, fresh, enthralling and addictive. And when you've reached the end, you'll be heading back to the start for more.
If you liked Assassin's Creed Origins, then you'll like this The Hidden Ones DLC. You just won't like it for very long though, as you'll have it wrapped up in an afternoon. It's an add-on that is sadly both lazy and derivative, and when players are being charged around £30 for a season pass, I don't think its unjustified to expect a little more bang for our buck.
Vesta was an absolutely delightful way to start off my gaming year. It's hardly ground-breaking stuff but this is a solid, dependable and, most importantly, fun game. It's all over rather quickly, but it's a credit to the developers that this left me wanting more.
Nine Parchments is a solid release. Its gorgeous art style, dependable controls and fun co-op play almost hide a multitude of sins. Almost. Unfortunately, with a poor save system and combat mechanics that never really develop from the first level onwards, Nine Parchments soon becomes a slog that is less than magical.
Unlike the invention of the wheel or the utilisation of fire, Caveman Warriors is hardly likely to revolutionise our world, but then it wasn't intended too. Instead you get a solid and fun side scrolling platformer that harks back to the console classics of yesteryear. It's gorgeous to look at, and whilst frustration can be caused with several technical issues, I nonetheless enjoyed my time with Caveman Warriors.
Outcast: Second Contact is an eighteen year old game that's been given a makeover. This is absolutely fine if you're a fan of the original and want to play it again on modern hardware, but if you don't have the nostalgia quality there's absolutely nothing that you won't find here that's done far better elsewhere. For a steep price tag of £39.99 on PS4, that's just not good enough.