Technical issues and graphical glitches aside, Man Of Medan is a pretty good title, with a creepy atmosphere and enough jump scares to keep you on edge through most of the game. The characters themselves, with a few exceptions, are generally unlikable though and it’s something Until Dawn had issues with too through much of its run-time. While I understand that generally in horror movies you’ll find the same thing, the archetypal characters and cookie-cutter characterisation offers little substance to build empathy with these people, and much of the time spent playing this you’ll find yourself progressing passively, rather than genuinely caring whether these people make it to safety or not.
Aside from a few gripes I had with this, Winds Of Change is a wonderful little visual novel. While the story does feel a little expository-heavy at the start and the latter periods feel very plot-driven rather than orientated by your characters' natural choices, this charming PC game has enough going for it to make it worth checking out. I love games like this and the world building, lore and general characterisation are good enough to keep you invested for the long haul. There are options to go back and replay with different choices but if I'm honest, I felt no desire to once I finished the game. Winds Of Change is a nice surprise and while it could certainly be better, the game itself is solid enough to recommend, especially given it's relatively cheap asking price.
Kart racers are tricky games to get right. Dwarfed by the mammoth success of Mario Kart and the recent release of Crash Team Racing, Team Sonic Racing is a surprisingly solid but ultimately forgettable addition to the genre. Taking the best elements from both of the aforementioned games, this Sega racer makes the most of its high-speed courses but is held back by some repetitive gameplay and a lack of variety with its tracks.
The Blackout Club is a multiplayer game with a great concept but questionable execution. Acting as a stealth title and boasting a unique premise, The Blackout Club blends core sneaking mechanics with a handful of stock missions that slowly reveal more about the world around you as you play. Held back by some clumsy AI, a repetitive mission loop and a distinct lack of challenge until deep in the experience, The Blackout Club is an experiment worth checking out but unlikely to be something you stick around with for the long haul when the game ironically becomes much more enjoyable.
In an endless sea of looter shooters, multiplayer battle royales and microtransaction-riddled titles, Plague: Tale Innocence is a breath of fresh air. With a simple, 10 hour narrative and a well paced story, Plague Tale backs up its compelling plot line with some cleverly evolving gameplay, with each of its deliciously dark chapters an absolute delight to play through. Created by a passionate team of 40 or so people, Plague: Tale Innocence is a reminder of what this medium can produce with a bit of creativity and passion, leaving this reviewer saddened when the journey ended. Despite the visuals not quite matching traditional blockbuster game standards, the atmosphere and general aesthetic of the game more than makes up for this, making Plague Tale: Innocence one of the best games of the year.
Days Gone is not a perfect game. It never quite reaches the narrative mastery of The Last Of Us nor does it manage to instil the same awe-inspiring exploration games like Assassin's Creed have managed so successfully in the past. Its zombies are far less intimidating than those in Dying Light and some of the core gameplay loops, including Deacon's motorbike maintenance, are outright detrimental to the entire experience. Yet as I played through the 65+ hours of this open world game, Day's Gone really started to grow on me. So much so that if you can persevere with the issues, Day's Gone opens up in the best possible way to deliver a memorable and narratively compelling adventure well worth experiencing.
Armed with a decent aesthetic and a unique twist of horror and real time strategy, The Are Billions is let down by a rigid gameplay loop, a lack of building variety and a steep difficulty curve. While there is fun to be had here, and the game certainly has its fair share of stand-out moments, veterans of the genre will be disappointed with the simplicity of building whilst newbies may find themselves struggling to work out the best strategy for expanding and progressing.
I had a lot of fun with Zombotron; it's accessible enough to jump in and have a blast right away whilst deep enough to allow for some progression and variety to keep things from growing stale. While some of the later levels are tough and overload the segments with far too many enemies, for the most part Zombotron manages to nail its premise with precision. When it comes to the saturated Indie game market, Zombotron has a lot going for it and given it's cheap price on Steam right now, it's well worth checking out.
In comparison to 2033 or the original Metro game, Exodus fails to match up. The open world setting is a nice idea poorly implemented, contradicting the claustrophobic, tense atmosphere that worked so well to define the previous games. There is some potential here but the shallow characters, clunky controls and cliched silent protagonist make this a game that would have been a hit 10 years ago, but feels out of place in 2019. There is enjoyment to be had here, but if you're looking for something to match its predecessors, Metro: Exodus fails to live up to expectations.
It's a bitter pill to swallow because Mortal Kombat 11 is actually a really fun and enjoyable fighter. It's gory, gruesome and full of some of the most absurd, crazy fatalaties in the series' storied history. The fighting has multiple layers of strategy too, ranging from X-Ray moves, counters, interactive environments and more. This game should be a high 7/10 or even an 8/10 but I just cannot recommend something with such predatory microtransactions in. Mortal Kombat 11 could be great, but it suffers a gruesome fatality at the hands of its microtransaction-riddled infrastructure.
Having said all that, there are some wonderful boss fights here, with the Great Serpent and Lady Butterfly my personal favourites. I loved the way these developed and throughout the game there are glimmers of excellence sprinkled throughout. With a lack of customisation and replayability, Sekiro pales by comparison to what’s come before though. It’s a good game, no doubt about it, but it’s a game that can’t quite decide who it wants to appeal to. It’s likely to be far too challenging for the average gamer while Souls fans will likely lament the lacklustre combat compared to what’s come before. What we’re left with then is a beautiful game, one that’s stuck with a real identity crisis that some will love and others will loathe.
Rage 2 is not a bad game but it's not a particularly good one either. At its best, this bland open world is overshadowed by glimmers of brilliance in its combat. At its worst, Rage 2 borders on mundane and laborious, taking liberties with your time through meaningless quests and unskippable dialogue. If you value your time, Rage 2 is not a game I can recommend. Its combat is spread far too thinly and the few shining moments of brilliance are dimmed by a mundane tasks and mechanics we've seen time and time again, delivered with more flair in other games.
How To Train Your Dragon is, in theory, a movie franchise rife for decent video game adaptations. With plenty of lore, world building and material to draw on across both the TV and film platforms, it’s surprising then that the games haven’t managed to take advantage of this as much as they should. Despite some fun dungeon crawling mechanics and a simple, original story, New Riders fails to deliver a compelling and memorable experience, devolving too often into the usual tropes you’d expect from this sort of movie tie-in.
These things aside, as an authentic Devil May Cry experience, DMC 5 absolutely nails it. The fighting is smooth, the graphics stunning and there’s a slick fluidity to the action that makes it a highly refined hack’n’slash and one of the better ones released in this genre for quite some time. Even if you’re not a fan of Devil May Cry, there’s enough here to enjoy and it’s absolutely a title I’d recommend checking out.
Resident Evil 2 is not just a fantastic remake, it’s a very good horror game in its own right. The atmosphere, voice acting and sound design are outstanding, with each environment set up to maximise the horror. The story can be completed in around 8 hours or so but the different play modes and separate storyline for Claire gives you incentive to play through this one again to experience the whole story. It’s worth doing too and with no microtransactions, loot boxes or free to play mechanics in sight, Capcom have delivered a refreshingly straight forward game, one that’s easily up there with one of the best of 2019.
The Division 2 is a thoroughly enjoyable and challenging shooter. It improves on almost every aspect of the first game with a whole wealth of content and options on offer. Despite a few convoluted screens, the menus are better designed this time around and the loot progression fine-tuned to perfection. Given the scepticism I had going into this one, Ubisoft have delivered one of the best games of 2019 so far and a very enjoyable third person shooter in its own right.
After the mediocre effort of Lego Incredibles and the familiar, but largely entertaining, offering of Lego DC Villains, The Lego Movie 2 attempts to merge two worlds but fails quite considerably. For the younger members of the family, Lego Movie 2 is a simplistic, entertaining and well-rehearsed Lego game with less bugs and a better aesthetic compared to Lego Worlds. Sadly, the lack of a compelling narrative, interesting missions and a repetitive gameplay loop makes The Lego Movie 2 a really poor offering in comparison to other Lego games. It’s not terrible but it is a far cry from what we’ve come to expect from this studio.
If you're a little fatigued with the usual Far Cry formula and are looking to try something a bit different, steer clear of New Dawn. Despite its pretty visuals and reasonably well implemented RPG mechanics, this is largely an unchanged Far Cry experience. The enemy AI is woeful, the game suffers from the same poorly paced story beats as Far Cry 5, while the gameplay loop is almost virtually unchanged. However, if you're looking for more of the same, you can't really go wrong with this one. A little short in length and light on content nonetheless, New Dawn is simply a DLC add-on flaunted as a full priced stand-alone game and it just doesn't do enough to justify this.
Despite its short length, Donut County is a brilliantly polished, refined little Indie game. Its premise is simple, well executed and incredibly addictive. There's something profoundly satisfying with dropping items into a hole, and seeing this expand and grow offers up a really satisfying feeling of progression. Donut County is quite simply a really well put together game and one of 2018's biggest surprises - even if it is a little short.
After the financial success of the Crash Bandicoot remake it was almost inevitable that a slew of studios would follow suit and recreate other iconic classics. With Medievil and Resident Evil 2 looming on the horizon, Activision’s Spyro Trilogy was met with some criticism over delays and controversial downloads before its release. Thankfully, the game (or games as the case may be!) is another sure-fire hit, keeping everything intact that made the originals so endearing with enough of a graphical upgrade to make it worth the extra cash.