In the first season of The Walking Dead, you really had to worry about each and every choice, whereas here there seems to be a tragic inevitability about everything. It's hard to say whether that is actually an issue, or a reflection of the harsh world Clementine finds herself in. Maybe by making it seem like everything will go wrong, despite your best efforts, Telltale are trying to show just how hopeless the situation has become. This might be a stretch of the imagination, but if it is intended to make us feel numb to the horrors of the world, then they have played a master stroke. Time will tell on that front.
Gigantic Army certainly won't win any awards for being technically proficient or graphically impressive, but what it manages to do is take a well-worn gaming formula and add a few new elements to it – and in doing so, it manages to reduce some of the major bugbears that those frustratingly difficult titles often suffered from. The story and design may not be unique enough to allow the game to stand out and be a hugely memorable experience, but the gameplay itself is very satisfying and not purely a nostalgia trip.
It is strange to find an adventure game that you actually want to play through a second time right after completing it just to see what you could have done differently. Point and click games have notoriously low re-playability, so 1954: Alcatraz is unlike most of its contemporaries just for including such bold ideas as multiple solutions and narrative choice.
Tormentum: Dark Sorrow is thoroughly successful in its attempts to build a disconcerting world to play through. Its tendency towards being somewhat on the easy side doesn't detract from the experience – by having puzzles that can be figured out through logic or trial and error, OhNoo allow even the most unskilled point and click players to progress through their twisted tale.
As an open world sandpit to explore and sink your time into, Watch Dogs 2 provides a lot of content and opportunities to have fun. How much fun you can have depends on your capacity for exploration. Things start to fall apart once you are forced to take part in the very structured main missions and the glaring mechanical issues come to the fore. A refurbishment and a lick of paint can work wonders – but if the foundations aren’t solid, then the results won’t be fantastic. Watch Dogs 2 is a massive improvement over its predecessor, but if a stealth game isn’t fun to play in a stealthy way, then you know something isn’t quite right.
The Quark combo system is a clever and intuitive gameplay mechanic, which is sadly let down by basic design issues.
WWE 2K15 feels like a real step back for the series in many ways, not the generational leap forward that we hoped for.
The concept and writing will draw you in, while at the same time the ridiculous puzzle design pushes you away.
Players are bound to get some fun out of solving the challenging conundrums in Violett, which is a refreshing change from the often far too easy puzzlers we see nowadays, but it simply isn't enough to strongly recommend a title that frustrates more often than not.
But it provides a different gameplay experience from the main story. You will most likely find yourself dodging Zombies and riding around on motorcycles, with the emphasis on killing other humans. Sadly, the game loses its identity a little when it becomes a simple biker game, and of course, once again it is all too short. The story ties nicely into that of Nick once you reach the end, but you will reach the end far too quickly.
The controls and detection afforded by the new hardware undoubtedly makes Kinect Sports Rivals a much more technically-accomplished title, with fewer of the niggly irritations gamers almost expect from a motion control game. The events generally work (tennis aside) but, sadly, functionality isn't the basis for an enjoyable game. The emphasis on the story mode and online sharing loses the simple magic of local multiplayer and the silliness of party play. Yes, party games can be a bit grating, but Kinect Sports always managed a good mix where you could play seriously or play for laughs. Rivals does not have this same variety and, while it controls well, there is a definite loss of personality.
Mario Party: Island Tour is far from being a bad game, it’s just a part of a series that seems to have run out of ideas to an extent, lacking any aspects that really excite or pleasantly surprise you. There is still plenty of fun to be had when taking on some of the more successful mini games with a group of friends locally, but the game as a whole does come across as more of a re-tread of something we have played time and time again. As such, there is little about Island Tour to recommend above past portable versions of the game. If this is your first experience with the series, it is certainly one of the best versions, I’m just not entirely sure that it’s a necessary one.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst still feels like a lot of fun to play through, as the parkour system remains a really successful mechanic for navigating the game world. Dice have made a lot of changes that both hurt and harm the series, but at least you couldn't say that this is a lazy re-working of an eight-year old game.
The gaming landscape has certainly changed since Dishonored was released in 2012, but the advent of the current generation of home consoles has done nothing to diminish its strengths. Dishonored remains an enthralling mix of first-person stealth action, supernatural special powers and a timeless painterly aesthetic. Thrust into the centre of a diabolical plot, out for revenge, Dishonored gives players the freedom to play the game their way – whether that be good or bad, lethal or non-lethal – and to see the game world shaped by your actions.
Lumo takes all of your rose-tinted memories of the isometric adventure genre and manages to faithfully re-create them – whilst making the much-needed changes that make going back to those old games so painful. True, some gamers won’t appreciate the soft touch, but Noyce caters for them too if they want more of a challenge.
Lost Dimension certainly doesn’t make a great first impression. On the surface, the visuals aren’t up to scratch, the plot is fairly hackneyed and the turn-based RPG battles aren’t exactly revolutionary. However, there is one particularly unique gameplay mechanic that somehow manages to keep pushing you forward, eager to progress.
Lumo takes all of your rose-tinted memories of the isometric adventure genre and manages to faithfully re-create them – whilst making the much-needed changes that make going back to those old games so painful. True, some gamers won’t appreciate the soft touch, but Noyce caters for them too if they want more of a challenge.
Gomo does have some real charm in its simple yet appealing visuals and its strange sense of humour, but it is seriously lacking in the gameplay department. It is far too short and even the most inexperienced point and click gamers won't take more than a couple of hours to complete the game. After that there is nothing to really come back to, and neither the puzzles nor the plot are interesting enough to warrant a second play-through. You can see Gomo's indie roots clearly, and maybe it would have found its place better in its original flash-based format.
Those of you who were hoping for a blockbuster end to the series of downloadable episodes will likely be disappointed. The Last Agent sets itself up well with a stronger premise, which actually expands upon the campaign plot, but falters in its execution. It suffers all of the same pitfalls that affected episodes one, two and three, whilst offering perhaps even less actual new content than each of those. A grand finale this definitely is not, and whilst The Untold Stories of Los Perdidos gave players a welcome reason to re-enter the city, they have short-changed loyal fans at almost every turn.
As an overall idea, the premise of playing as bit-part characters from the main campaign, and discovering more of their back-story is a clever hook. The way in which the DLC manages to integrate itself into the canon is successful, and makes you excited about who else we might get to play as. Unfortunately there is just too little content and not enough character or story development to recommend Operation Broken Eagle wholeheartedly. As part of the Season Pass, it provides a nice excuse to jump back into Los Perdidos for a few more hours, but I do hope that the forthcoming episodes delve a little deeper into the lives of their protagonists, providing a little more to get your teeth into.