LEGO The Incredibles is a fun family-friendly new addition to the ever-growing LEGO franchise. The game doesn’t really bring many new features and mechanics to the table, but it does expand on some which were present in previous games. The game is a lot shorter than recent titles, clocking in at around 6-7 hours for the main story, but once you add in all of the overworld activities and collectables, you easily hit around 30-40 hours worth of gameplay. I particularly love how they have built in a way to easily see which character have the ability you are looking for, a much-needed addition to the LEGO games. Unfortunately, the game is plagued with pop-in, a not very exciting rendition of both movies (played in reverse order for some reason), and probably the worst flying/swimming/driving mechanics to date in a LEGO game.
Eventide 3: Legacy of Legends isn’t the most climatic or dramatic ending to the amazingly detailed series I would have hoped for, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. The location once again look beautiful, the story is interesting, the settings are perfect and the soundtrack is spot on. However, what let it down a little for me was the repetitiveness of some of the puzzles from previous Artifex Mundi titles, the lower quality voice acting, and the lack of a climactic ending or bonus chapter to tie things up a little better. That being said, what the game does do, it does well as it gradually gets more difficult as you play until all the safety wheels are off and you’re on your own. Definitely a high recommendation to all Artifex Mundi fans and those who like casual puzzle games.
Lumines: Remastered is a musical masterpiece, an addictive puzzle, and a fiendish rhythm game all presented in a simple, yet elegant, package. When you’re not trying to unlock new ‘skins’ in the challenge mode you’ll be either facing off against an opponent or trying your luck at one of the many pre-defined puzzles. As you progress you are rewarded with new songs, colour pallets and designs (skins), which boosts your determination to unlock them all and give it “just one more go”. Lumines: Remastered looks and plays perfectly on a big screen and I imagine it will be even better in handheld mode on the Switch, it’s just a shame the Vita missed out this time.
Survive! Mr. Cube is a casual roguelike game with its emphasis on combat being more than it’s overall story. Don’t go into the game expecting it to be a brutal game which will take you many hours to platinum and keep you trying over and over until you reach the final boss. The game is more for those who like the idea of a roguelike but would rather stay alive longer and get the sense of progression within their current playthrough and not the next. That being said, when you do inevitably die, you are given a new character and weapon and sent out into the world to fight once more. The game is charming and I had a lot of fun playing through it.
Through the Woods is a decent indie game built around Norse folklore/mythology that has been slightly integrated within the story of a mother and her estranged son. Throughout your journey to recover your child, you will encounter creatures which you must stealthily bypass and uncover things about yourself and the woods which may be a little uncomfortable for some people. The two main downsides to the game lie within its integration of the two stories and the length. With more time, we would have had more development on the characters and gave me a reason to care about them, with more integration then we could have seen how the random occurrences linked to the mother.
Illusion: A Tale of the Mind is a fun puzzle-platformer with some very frustratingly strict timed segments and confusing puzzles. The overall story of the game, the setting, the audio, and graphics are all amazing and work really well together – It’s just a shame that our protagonist walks as fast as a snail as she takes in everything that’s around her. Issues aside though, the game was fun to play and interesting to follow. I’d recommend this to people who like puzzle platformers where the emphasis is on the story and the four puzzle types I mentioned in my review. I also love a good story with an emotional aspect, Illusion: A Tale of the Mind didn’t fail to deliver on this either.
The Lost Child is both a great game and a very frustrating one. It does a lot of things really well, the dungeon crawling, the story, the voice acting, the combat, and the puzzles themselves. Yet, it also has issues with the lack of tracking your investigations well, the difficulty spike at certain points, the too-frequent random battles, and the vagueness of some of the riddles. However, as a whole, the game was great to play through as it only got more interesting the more you got into it, and it was very satisfying to both solve the puzzles and unlock 100% of each floor.
OnRush is a different type of racing game, you aren’t trying to come first or be number one, you’re trying to complete set objectives as part of a six-man team. The four modes offer a lot of variety when combined with the many different stages, vehicles, time of day, and seasons. The only downside I had was the randomness of whose cosmetics you receive it the in-game loot crates and the lack of a standard ‘race’ mode. Whether you’re playing it in single player or multiplayer, you will find hours upon hours of entertainment as you smash, crash, boost, and rush your team to victory.
Old Man’s Journey is an emotional, narrative-less experience in which you must guide an ‘Old Man’ as he embarks on a trip based on the mysterious letter he received in the post. Although the game has one core mechanic – the raising and lowering of hills – the game changes things around by introducing hazards and various other mechanics which will make you think. The whole game looks and sounds beautiful with an amazing art style and a pleasant soundtrack which combinate into an emotional story of discovery, loss, and regret.
Vampyr is a brilliant game from Dontnod which I’m sure is bound to be up for awards in its storytelling, atmosphere, music, and design. Will you embrace the hunger within yourself and devour all of the citizens in order to make yourself stronger, or will you remain mentally strong and resist the urge as you investigate the source of the strange epidemic? It may take you a while to become accustomed to the controls if you’ve not played a Souls-like game before, but once you’re used to them then the game becomes a lot more fun to play. There are many interesting and unique characters to meet, lots of side quests to work through, and tonnes of places to visit as you wander around early 20th century Victorian London in the dead of night.
Along Together is easily one of my favourite PSVR titles to date. The sheer clarity of the game, the clever level design, the cute and loveable characters, and the overall setting of the game set this game above others who try and provide the same gameplay mechanics. Sure, the puzzles aren’t mindbending and you’ll probably get through the game within about three-hours without a guide or any help, but the journey of making your way through the game and working everything out for yourself is both satisfying and above all, tonnes of fun.
The Journey Down Trilogy is one of the few games in the point-and-click genre which has made its way over to modern consoles and it still looks and plays great. The game reminds you of the good old days of LucasArts, when this genre contained games with not only great writing, brilliant humour, and an interesting setting, but also unique styles, designs and atmospheres. The puzzles are fun to work through and rewarding to work out for yourself, with a mixture of standard and inventory puzzles in the mix. All of this is brought together perfectly with a great art design, unusual characters and a distinctive music score and voice acting.
The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection is an amazing purchase for fans of the franchise who would love to play the iconic games which helped make this series one of the best fighting games in the world. Would I have liked other titles such as Street Fighter IV? Sure, but I imagine they didn't include these as they are already readily available on the current generation of consoles. There is a tonne of content here, whether you wish to play solo through the twelve campaigns, play against your friends one-on-one, play the arcade online in four titles and have random people jump in to fight you, or just head online to kick some ass – you won't be bored of this title for a while!
Yoku's Island Express is the perfect combination of your favourite Metroidvania game, a watercolour painting and pinball. The majority of your time within the game will be spent flying around the screen as you furiously try and make it through all of the pinball-based enclosed areas, areas which never repeat, never get old, and never overstay their welcome. The rest of your time will be spent interacting with all of the lovable characters, experiencing the humour of the writing, collecting items, and delivering mail. Not bad for the first day on the job for our young protagonist!
Conan Exiles actually surprised me with how much fun it was and how deep the various gameplay mechanics got. The team at Funcom have done a great job in taking on user feedback and developing the game throughout early access and delivering a final product which actually works without too many issues. As a single player game, you will find many hours of rewarding experiences as you learn the basics and develop your own skills and knowledge. As a multiplayer game, you and your mates/random people will find hours upon hours of enjoyment as you either work together or against each other and fulfil your destiny.
Moonlighter is a great indie title about adventuring into the unknown in search of both riches and information. Whether you're deep in combat within a dungeon, re-organising your backpack to make room for new items, or flogging your findings to the locals; the game will have you addicted to its gameplay and intrigued on what's going to happen next in the story. Sure, the first few hours may be slow as you get to grips with how the selling works and you work out how much you can sell things for, but once you get that locked down you won't want to stop playing.
Fox n Forests is a 16-bit inspired puzzle platformer with an emphasis on exploration and collection. It stays true to its influences and expands upon them in order to create a truly unique and entertaining game. If you gave this game to someone, without telling them what it is or the fact it came out this year, they would seriously think they were playing a game of the past. The only issue for me was the requirement to find certain items in order to move the story on and get to later levels. I've always had an issue with this in games as it feels like a forced replayability mechanic, which is a shame as this game didn't need that to get me to replay it.
SEGA Mega Drive Classics is a great purchase if you want to take a trip back to the 90's and replay many classic games. Containing over 50 titles, you won't find a collection this big for such a low price whilst also offering high-quality emulation with added extras like instant rewind, quick saves, and the mirror mode. A lot of the titles are brought into the 21st century with the inclusion of online leaderboards, challenges, trophies and online multiplayer which adds to the replayability factor. Pretty much every genre is included and there is bound to be something for everyone. If you grew up with a Mega Drive/Genesis then I can't recommend this enough – you will explode with nostalgia!
PixelJunk Monsters 2 is a masterpiece, it looks amazing, it plays buttery smooth, and the core mechanics are solid. If you just aim to 'finish' the game and play through all 15 levels, then you're looking at about five hours, but if you aim to achieve a 100% completion on all 15 levels at each of the three difficulties, then expect over 20 hours easily. The length, in combination with the low price and the brilliant, and cheap, DLC which has been announced basically makes this the easiest game to recommend which I have played to date. Fans of tower defence games need this title within their library and are only letting themselves down if they don't grab it.
Emily Wants to Play Too is very similar to the first game in terms of its core mechanics. You will spend a lot of your time wandering around dark environments and learning how to deal with the various enemies whilst looking for a way out. This sequel does mix things up a little with a switch in its gameplay mechanics halfway through which helps keep the gameplay fresh and entertaining. I personally had issues with the lack of direction, instruction and guidance in the first section of the game, but if you persevere and make it to the facility, then the game gets much better. Fans of the original game will love this, and so will people who enjoy jump scare games such as FnaF and SCP.