Ian Howarth's Reviews
Whilst the game is densely packed with a ton of stuff to do, I still believe most of it is much too easy or repetitive – resulting in it feeling mostly like constant fetch quests.
I'm not sure I'd ever go back to play Detached again and it's definitely not making it into my 'impress first time VR-users' catalogue. In fact, it has instead become my go-to example for how VR standards must be respected and how ignoring them can potentially ruin what might have been an otherwise fantastic experience. I'm not sure I can put it any better than that; great game but unplayable.
The story is paper-thin, going into no more detail than 'some magical gems that are used to power portals have been knocked all over the place; find and replace them'. Even then that would normally be fine – we don't need a reason for everything we do in games, such as running to the right and stomping Goombas, but usually games like that instead provide a challenge as the motivational tool that keeps us going. Sadly, Snake Pass fails to deliver there too.
Bulletstorm is a nice little 8-hour time-sink where the player has to never think and can just go about blowing people to bits. Sure, it hasn't aged well but the combat side works fine and there's a bit of replayability if one wants to attempt to get every Skillshot, or try to see how far you can get with a couple of friends in the wave-based multiplayer mode. However, it is certainly a shame to see such little effort put into this new release even though it is perfectly OK.
With lacklustre multiplayer and a simplified single-player that timidly asks for only basic platforming skills, completion of race challenges that provide plenty of time even after a few screw-ups, and battles that allow unlimited lives with no time limit or enemy respawns, Unbox is definitely not something that should be played if looking for a challenge.
With nothing that stands out too much in the sound or art department besides, for some reason, making me feel nostalgic for Wild 9 on the original Playstation, what we have here is a fun game that can be mastered and beaten relatively quickly.
Nevertheless I have to give BetaDwarf props for trying something different here by mixing up an original blend of genres and for creating something innovative. And although I’m afraid I’m going to have to recommend the original Forced over Showdown any day, I really hope that this team keeps striving to create new and interesting concepts because that is sadly something pretty hard to come by nowadays.
I had a lot of fun and frustration during my time playing Clandestine and whilst I'm a huge fan of co-op and love to see how it being implemented in refreshing new ways, I still felt like I was playing an early access game, where only the core functionality had been completed, albeit with some pretty strange and often hilarious bugs, such as taking guards out through walls and the most randomly broken cutscenes I've ever seen.
We need more of this.
The only problem is we still want more! Don't get me wrong, I'm always grateful to see a new deeply cooperative game release as, as mentioned, they are often few and far between, but the We Were Here games are special.
Is Bayonetta 3 worth playing? If you're already a fan, absolutely.
Unfortunately for the development team's usual crowd of fans, there is no single-player mode here.
The way Cult of the Lamb smoothes this out is by affording constant upgrades, skills, side missions, new NPCs, mini-games, and more.
Sadly, I don't think Collection 5 is the best so far.
It does a good job of gelling these two halves together and the mystery is more than enough to pull a player through the trials of chaotic shooting, even when the levels can start to feel repetitive.
Flynn: Son of Crimson manages to cover a lot of ground for it's six-ish hour campaign.
It would take forever to discuss everything Relicta gets players to do over it's tremendous (for a game like this') runtime, but you must know that it will force a complete change of perspective time and time again, even when you are positive you know how everything works.
I'm very excited to see what's coming next, especially because of the strangely dark moments that pop in every now and then that clearly foreshadow a much more dreadful history than the heartwarming cut-out looking characters and uplifting low-poly world would have you believe.
This is not a game I can recommend for its uniqueness.
Right now its lifespan, that will determine the amount of continual improvements and new content to be added, lies on the fact that Hood is pretty much available everywhere and embraces crossplay.