If you’re looking for a casual game that you can wind down with for a few hours, Wind Peaks is for you. The gameplay is very similar to Where’s Wally, only digital with relaxing music and ambient sounds. It may not take you too long to complete, even if you’re trying to grab all of the trophies, but its a game you can easily return to time and time again as you’ll forget where the items were hidden after a while. No matter how old you are or how well you can see, the handy hint option will ensure that you never get stuck – making this a great game for all of the family.
If you’re looking for a challenging game with a pick-up-and-play concept, you should check out PUSS!. Although it looks like a cute kawaii puzzle game from the main title image, this game will eat away at your sanity and make you question what’s going on. It may not be impossible to beat, but it’ll surely push you to your limits with some of the more difficult and insane levels, testing your reaction speeds and patience as it throws everything but the kitchen sink at you. If you like cats, and torturing yourself, you’ll love PUSS!
Despite being rather bare-bones, Space Invaders Forever contains two awesome modernised editions of the game and one which is best played with friends. Even if you never grew up playing Space Invaders, the game is still fun to play today, especially with the new features such as powerups and massive boss battles – the gameplay is very easy to simply pick up and play without any skill required. I was disappointed in requiring multiple players for the second game (to win) and being forced to use the touchpad in the third, but once I adapted to this control scheme I really started to have fun and quickly became addicted. I would have loved to see more of the Space Invaders history within the game (as bonus features or older games), but overall I was happy with the two single-player focused games.
The Pillar: Puzzle Escape is a colourful casual puzzle game with relaxing music and atmosphere. Although the puzzles don’t vary much from the mechanics you encounter in the first few levels, some of them do become trickier as you enter the final four levels. If looking to grab the platinum, you only need to complete the first four levels, but I strongly recommend playing through all eight in order to enjoy everything the game has to offer. PSVR support and more variations on the puzzles would have enhanced the overall experience, but those looking for a more relaxing and less stressful version of The Witness will surely enjoy this beautiful puzzle game.
If you’re looking for a place to wind down and relax, Feather is for you. Although the game itself is quite short, you can easily lose hours within the experience as you fly around and explore both locations either alone or with random people from all other platforms. The beautiful low-poly aesthetics are vibrant and colourful, offering you a surreal adventure which is akin to games such as Journey. How much entertainment you get out of the game depends on what you’re looking for, trophy hunters may finish it quickly whereas casual gamers wanting a place to escape to will get much more out of it.
If you’re looking for a new psychological thriller which will make you jump (a lot), Those Who Remain is for you. Despite the pre-launch technical issues, which I believe will get fixed over the coming weeks, the game is held together by its interesting story, tense and exciting stealth segments, fun puzzles, and intriguing moral dilemmas. Although I personally got stuck and lost a few times, the fact the game doesn’t hold your hand and requires you to seek out clues and discover the next step in the narrative yourself is great and very satisfying when you figure it out – not many games do this these days. Thanks to the moral choices, lack of manual saves, and multiple ending trophies, replaying the game multiple times is a must to see everything the game has to offer.
The concept of Afterlife is very interesting, combining FMV with hands-free choices whilst within VR. I’d say the producers did a great job of seamlessly transitioning you down the various pathways as I didn’t even realise there were branches until the timeline popped up. However, the lack of trophies for the ‘gamers’ and low-quality compressed video file reduced my overall enjoyment of this experimental experience, despite actually enjoying the story and being immersed at all times (once I turned off the subtitles so the 3D-mode was enabled).
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! was much more hands-on and immersive than I originally thought it would be. Although I know I must have looked very stupid in real life, in the virtual world I was a superstar diva, dancing my heart out to save the human race from literally dancing their hearts out… Once the campaign is over – which will be rather fast – you still have the 100-stages to dance through daily in order to prolong the gameplay. Although I really enjoyed my time playing the game, thanks to the cheesy music and lyrics, bright colours, funky characters, and groovy dance moves, I honestly can’t justify the price for the amount of content provided.
Despite the short length and simplistic combat, Arc of Alchemist was a very fun Action RPG to play through. The combination of Hack ‘n Slash, RPG, Base Building, and puzzles all came together to create an interesting game, although the story is a little generic and predictable at times. If going for the platinum trophy, the grind is quite intense and will take you roughly twice as long as you spent completing the game for the first time. I would have liked a longer narrative, as the game was over when I had just really got into it, but the story had a definitive end (for now) so I hope we get a sequel or prequel sometime in the future to expand upon the world the developers have created.
Despite being a co-op focused game, 39 Days to Mars is fun to play both with another person or on your own. The puzzles are all fun, creative and work well with the two-player aspect, with only a few puzzle types repeating themself as part of the humorous narrative. If playing with another human, the journey you take is more than simply trying to get to Mars, it’s all about working together and co-operating in order to overcome the obstacles thrown at you. It may only be a short experience, at around 2-3 hours, but it’s a journey you’ll remember and want to play again.
Jurassic World Evolution: Return to Jurassic Park is an expansion which I believe should have been in the game from the start, serving as a tutorial to the game and introduction to the characters. It enables you to not only help the three original protagonists from the movies to rebuild the park to its ‘former glory’, but also unlock iconic buildings and dinosaurs to use in multiple game modes. Although the voice acting was a mixed bag, having three original actors from the film reprise their roles within the narrative of the new campaign was a great experience, something fans of the original trilogy will love. This game still stands as one of the best God-like simulation games on consoles so far this generation.
Although The 7th Guest: 25th Anniversary Edition isn’t as spooky or creepy as I remember it being, it’s still a very good puzzle game with ridiculously hard puzzles. The special edition has implemented a bunch of quality of life updates which makes the game much more accessible and user-friendly for both nostalgic gamers like me and newcomers alike. The cheesy FMVs and disturbing narrative makes the atmosphere much more enjoyable and immersive than your average adventure game from the early ’90s. If you’ve yet to step foot within Stauf’s mansion, you’re missing out on experiencing a piece of history, the birth of interactive horror puzzle games on CD-Rom.
FIA European Truck Racing Championship is a rather unique and time-consuming racing game. With the settings all set to default, a single race weekend will take you approximately three hours to complete, three hours of driving around the same racetrack in hopes of catching up to the parallel-running CPU who hardly ever slow down to give you an advantage. Not to mention the large number of penalties you can incur by breaking the official rules, thus further increasing your time and making restarting the race your only chance of success. However, despite the brutal nature, the unforgiving punishments, the long-winded racing (which I turned down) and the credit system not currently working, I quickly became addicted to this game and couldn’t stop playing.
Despite the obvious influences, ChromaGun VR is a solid VR puzzle game which will get you thinking. The game feels like it was made for VR, even though it came out over a year ago as a flat PS4 title. The puzzles were entertaining and challenging the further into the game you got, with the constant threat of rogue balls waiting to follow you and squish the life out of you should you wake them up. I did suffer from a burst of motion sickness using the new smooth turning method, but I can’t guarantee if that was the game or the previous game which may have left me feeling a little queasy. As such, there are a few comfort and accessibility options missing such as blinders and subtitles, but these can be added post-launch if enough people request them I guess.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is a short game, yet one of the best physics-based VR puzzle games I’ve played. It captures the thrill and enjoyment of the original Angry Birds game and perfectly replicates the concept within a Virtual Reality space for you to play with. Every single character, be it friend or foe, has it’s own personality and charm – it’s a shame that hardly anyone is left alive by the time you reach the end credits! Created as a simple game for everyone to enjoy, Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs can be played by people of all ages, both Left and Right handed people, people of any skill level, and those new to VR thanks to the static nature which causes no nausea at all. If you like the Angry Birds franchise, or even if you just love physics-based puzzles, then check this game out today!
8-Bit Hordes is a really fun and enjoyable second instalment in the 8-Bit Franchise and an interesting RTS as a whole. Instead of fending off the enemies with guns and bullets, we resort to melee, magic, and brute strength this time around as the ogres and wizards get involved. the gameplay and mechanics are identical to what we saw in 8-Bit Armies, but that’s not a bad thing as that game was also a great casual interpretation of the RTS genre on modern consoles
Railway Empire: Crossing the Andes is more forgiving than the previous DLC yet still offers a decent challenge to those looking for one. With it’s new massive South American region, 34 towns/cities, ten new resources and two new locomotives, this DLC pack contains hours upon hours of extra content for a single low price. If you don’t own any other DLC, you’ll get access to the night and day switch which completely changes the atmosphere of the game, other than that though, there isn’t any other visual changes this time around.
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is a great attempt at a Tactical RPG based within the Achtung! Cthulhu universe. Sure, the game has a few flaws in regards to its obstructive camera, lack of save options and spikes in difficulty, but it also has a lot of positives going for it as well. The combination of the realistic and the fantastical is very interesting and the various creatures who come to slaughter you are both interesting and exciting. Other than equipping your only four operatives, there is little to do between missions yet the fusion of exploration and numerous combat events within the missions helps make this game stand on its own in the genre.
The Council: Episode 4:- Burning Bridges is the most important episode in the series to date, yet the least interactive. This time around, the story is very linear and almost identical – regardless of your choices in the previous episode. Sure, you’ll have a few alternative scenes depending on who is still alive, but the episode doesn’t really change as much as previous ones did. However, with both of my playthroughs, I can feel something major will/should be different in the final episode as you make a few big choices this time around. With only two puzzles whose consequences won’t come to fruition until next time, this episode can seem more narrative-focused than interactive within it’s shorter playtime.
Torn is yet another great VR title which I’d strongly recommend you check out if you have the hardware. Sure, it has flaws such as the lack of subtitles, slow-paced movement with no smooth turning, no ability to adjust your in-game height, and repetitive puzzles, but the overall experience trumps most of those complaints once you get sucked into its world. I really enjoyed the puzzles, even though the vast majority of them are pretty much the same puzzle repeated in different rooms, Torn has a strong core mechanic and the developers chose to focus on that as their key aspect.