Despite its shortcomings, Journey To The Savage Planet is a charming little game, one that utilizes some good humour whilst delivering an enjoyable, vibrant and short adventure worth playing. It's unlikely to be regarded as one of the best games of the year, but it's a pleasant enough journey nonetheless.
Doom Eternal is a bloody good game. It’s a violent, gory, adrenaline-soaked descent into the hellish depths of your nightmare but it does so with such finesse and style that it’s easy to forget how well-designed and complex this game actually is. Between the 12 hour campaign, the plethora of collectables and the evolving combat that organically adds layers of challenge over time, Doom Eternal is hands down one of the best first person shooters of 2020 and, dare I say, a top contender for game of the year.
If you’re a fan of Where’s Wally and other books where you have to scan the pages meticulously to find hidden items, Hidden Through Time is essentially the video game equivalent of this. It’s such an ingeniously developed game and this simplicity makes it the perfect Indie to sit back and relax with. It’s a great coffee break game to play between big blockbusters and one that certainly has a lot of scope to expand in the future.
Dreams is unlike anything else out there. Of course, this also makes reviewing the title incredibly tricky too – do you review this as a game? Or as a game creation software? The answer is, I guess, a bit of both. Mileage will vary from person to person but it’s a very specific game that itches a very specific scratch, one that you’ll either pick up and love or pick up, play for 2 or 3 hours and never come back to again.
Kakarot is ultimately a game of two halves. On the one hand, this is the quintessential way to experience the entire Dragon Ball Z story beyond watching the anime, with some gorgeous aesthetics, faithful boss fights and some really iconic moments along the way. Unfortunately this is let down by a disappointing and barren open-world structure with little incentive to explore, especially give the long loading times and miniscule experience gains. It’s a game that could have been great, with all the ingredients to produce a spectacular RPG effort but unfortunately fails to hit Super Saiyan status.
Conceptually at least, Close To The Sun is actually a really intriguing game. Combining elements of Bioshock, Sherlock Holmes and first person horrors, Close To The Sun attempts to capture the same wonder found in those titles but fails to really capitalize on that as well as it perhaps should. Admittedly, the opening few chapters are pretty good at building up the tension but soon after the game devolves frustratingly into a series of chase sequences and puzzle-platform sections that don’t always work well with the narrative.
SuperEpic: The Entertainment War may not be the best Metroidvania-style game, but it is the first I’ve played that manages to turn the topic of microtransactions into a positive gameplay mechanic. When it comes down to it, SuperEpic is a satirical, surprisingly balanced 16-bit platformer that juggles its simplistic premise with enough visual flair and charm to make it well worth the cost to play. While the actual gameplay loop remains unchanged through much of the play-time, the changing aesthetic and added enemy variety is a welcome sign and a clear conscious effort to inject the game with some excitement to prevent it stagnating.
While it may be simple in concept, Arise: A Simple Story delivers a real showstopper when it comes to its gameplay, offering up an innovative blend of aesthetic splendour and strong themes. It’s a beautiful, poignant journey not to be missed and one of the best games of the year.
Hideo Kojima reminds me a lot of George R.R. Martin and George Lucas. With a bit of restraint, these men have managed to achieve greatness in their respective fields. Without that overarching influence to keep them on the straight and narrow, and with free reign to conjure up something wholly self-published and original, these artists have struggled to reign themselves in and rekindle that early career magic, producing lacklustre and ever-so-slightly egotistical pieces of fiction. Death Stranding then, is Hideo Kojima following in that same vein.
Superliminal is a game that values quality over quantity and is all the stronger for it. With simple, inventive mechanics and an involving play-time between 2-4 hours, Pillow Games have produced a wonderful little puzzle game here.
The simulation aspects are a big step-up from Planet Coaster and Frontier have been pretty quick to resolve some of the biggest problems with the game during its launch. While the online marketplace and steep learning curve may put some people off, Planet Zoo is a beautiful zoo tycoon game nonetheless, chock full of educational content mixed in with realistic animal behaviour. It’s not perfect but it’ll almost certainly serve as a worthy replacement for Zoo Tycoon for the time being.
Concrete Genie is quite simply a classic example of quality over quantity and aside from a few gripes with the final hour of the game, this is easily one of the best games of 2019. Not bad for a title that clocks in at around 5 hours. It’s a great showcase for how games can break free from conventional norms and illustrate an idea in a polished and clever manner. This is a game that personally resonated with me right the way through to the final scenes and one that’s absolutely worth its weight in gold. If you’re on the fence about this one, do yourself a favour and take the plunge. You’ll be thankful you did.
Having said all this, Medievil is a remake that'll almost certainly split opinion. On the one hand, the game perfectly captures everything the original did right, with faithful level design and updated visuals, whilst consequently carrying over all the baggage too, including the questionable camera and dated controls. As a fan of the franchise, I loved playing through this 6+ hour adventure again and the waves of nostalgia hit at every turn. As an introduction for newcomers in 2019 though, Medievil is a game that shows its age at almost every turn, groaning and bemoaning its luck much like our plucky hero Sir Dan.
Amidst the ongoing PR fiasco of Fallout 76 and Bioware's disastrous looter-shooter Anthem, The Outer Worlds could not have dropped at a more opportune time. Acting as the spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds is a reasonably polished, refreshing roleplaying title that puts story and dialogue at its forefront in favour of robust gameplay and mechanics. It's a timely reminder of how good these RPGs can be when you focus on creating a good game rather than a polished monetised model and the result is something that immediately feels familiar and enjoyable to anyone who's played Obsidian's previous games.
Greedfall is a game I want to love. On the surface, this semi-open world, action RPG feels like a patchwork of different ideas and concepts, all of which executed acceptably but never quite brilliantly. With elements of The Witcher, Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls and The Council, this politically-charged title gets a lot right but it does so in a manner that's not quite as effective as it should be. With a development team of 35 or so people, Greedfall is an impressive AA title but some constant issues with the combat and environment hold this game back from greatness.
Fifa 20 has all the parts to make for a competent, impressive footballing title this year. I played Pro Evo last month and was pleasantly surprised by the fluidity and realistic football on display in that title and wondered whether Fifa could compete on the pitch. In a way it does, at least for a little while. Matches are genuinely balanced with a good use of physics and improved animations, but various glitches and bugs hold this game back from ascending to the level it should hit. The career mode is almost entirely unplayable if you want a realistic experience and unless you're prepared to put some serious time into Ultimate Team, Volta's short story mode may not be enough to keep you coming back for more.
Blending the best elements of Final Fantasy, anime and Pokemon, Ni No Kuni’s arrival on the PlayStation 3 was met with critical acclaim when it dropped back in 2011. The game was certainly not without its issues though but this 50+ hour adventure was well written, well paced and incredibly fun to play. Returning to the current generation of consoles, Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch adds updated graphics and a smoother frame-rate but gameplay-wise remains the exact same game that launched all those years ago.
There’s a lot to like here and on the pitch, Pro Evolution is easily one of the best football simulators on the market. In terms of polish, the game suffers from some aesthetically janky menus and a cumbersome team management screen. The loading times are a little too long, especially during on-pitch breaks like throw ins and corners, while the commentary is pretty woeful all round. Compared to FIFA though, Pro Evo is all about performance, rather than aesthetic, and where it really matters, the game absolutely delivers.
With the dust now settling on Telltale’s time in the game industry (before the name has subsequently been snatched up ready for a revamp), The Telltale Definitive Series is a celebration of the hard work put in by the numerous people employed by the company who created these games. Featuring all four original titles, the 400 Days DLC pack and The Walking Dead: Michonne, for the first time all these games, plus a slew of special features, come together to make for one impressive collection, especially given the asking price.
Regardless of your feelings toward Final Fantasy VIII, there’s something timelessly endearing about this often-forgotten title. The plot progresses well, the characters grow into their roles despite a rocky start and the soundtrack is one of the best in the series’ history. The gameplay is largely unchanged and the battle assist options do cut out some of the grind, which will appeal to those looking to experience the story again without the need to grind through levels. It may not be the remake fans have been crying out for, but it is a solid reminder of how charming these early turn-based games were back in the day, and well worth a play all these years later.