Ride 4 is an incredibly detailed racing game that will have motorcycle enthusiasts very pleased. Not being too interested in motorcycles myself, I’ve enjoyed learning how to race on them in this game. The difficulty of the game despite the racing assists is a bit too high for my liking, and it would have benefited from having some form of tutorial race to practice on before tackling real races. The graphics are extremely impressive and despite the difficulty, I can feel my skills getting better. I just wish I could at least finish the first cup and unlock more of the game.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a fantastic tactical RPG, made better with outstanding voice acting and hilarious puns. The humour is rife in this game and while it may not be for some, had me laughing constantly. The tactical combat gameplay is difficult but rewarding and the graphics are superb.
If you’ve played any of the Serious Sam games, you’ll likely remember they never were outstanding in the graphics department, mainly due to having so many monsters to fight on screen at once. Whilst some of the character animations weren’t the best, some of the level environments were amazing. We had a great time playing Serious Sam 4 co-op slaying hordes of monsters with lots of laughs at the hilarious and perfectly-timed one-liners.
Re:Turn – One Way Trip is a great 2D side scrolling adventure with excellent tension-building music and a well-written spooky story that drives you forward. There are times where the back and forth to solve puzzles gets a bit tedious, but the story elements justify the player’s efforts. The pixel art softens the horror jump scares somewhat, so don’t be turned off if horror games aren’t your thing as this game is worth a play through.
Partisans 1941 is a very well designed and executed tactics and stealth game; arguably one of my favourites. The addition of encampment and troop management between missions is a great way to break up the sometimes intense combat missions. I really enjoyed this look into the Partisans fighting along the eastern front, a story which I was not too familiar with. Fictitious or not, it was a fascinating insight into the mindset of being a guerilla force in those testing times.
Space Crew is fantastic and insanely good fun, but also can be quite punishing. Whilst some of the missions were challenging, it drove you to do better each time, and with missions that only last about 15-20 minutes, it’s a great game to play in short bursts. Gameplay is super smooth with excellent sounds and space visuals, particularly in missions with asteroid fields.
I enjoyed Shut In and whilst it was pretty dark and brutal in parts, it was balanced with challenging puzzles and good humour. I managed to complete the game in 1 hour 11 minutes but it’s a game worth experiencing if you like puzzle games. It’s also a fascinating glimpse for me into mental struggles of life in lockdown that many around the world have no doubt experienced or even still going through.
Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead is an awesome addition to the Bridge Constructor series given the added feeling of survival in The Walking Dead universe.
I did enjoy playing Welcome to Elk and I’m glad I made it through the whole game. By the end I really felt for the main characters and their stories depicted, even more so for the real life people who tell the stories. The ending was a nice warm way to round out the whole experience.
I really enjoyed my time playing Nine Witches: Family Disruption. The element of switching between Krakovitz’s astral perception mode and the shooting elements with Kagasawa were great additions to this style of adventure game. The puzzles were relatively logical to work out and the journal was a good feature if you do get stuck. I really enjoyed the balance of humour in the game, though I can see it wearing thin for others.
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a decent action RPG that fans of the genre will enjoy. It has a dark souls style to it so be sure to keep an eye out for those shrines. Death isn’t to be feared but you will have to fight the monsters you just cleared, and in the later levels, this can mean a decent amount of time lost. Still, I enjoyed the progression from each zone with terrific music and I liked the art style that softened the sometimes graphic content. If you’re up for a challenge, Morbid is for you.
Dirt 5 is an excellent racing game and is awesome fun to play with various race modes to suit all types of racers. Fans of the Colin McRae/Dirt series will sit in the drivers seat with ease, but there’s enough variety in game modes and track locations that it feels like a fresh iteration. On the Xbox Series X, the graphics are insane, however I did notice a drop in overall look and performance when I played on my original Xbox One.
The Touryst was a surprise hit that kept me coming back for more as I delved deeper into the puzzles and adventure. There are some frustrating sequences, particularly the more complex platform puzzles where the camera angle can be a bit of a nuisance.
The Medium is another fantastic game from Bloober Team. Whilst not as scary and anxiety-inducing as previous games, it’s more creepy and supernatural dealing with the spirit realm. The dual realities feature is by far the best element of this game and I loved exploring both the real and spirit worlds for clues to solve puzzles and progress the story. I sometimes felt restricted with the fixed camera angles, and had an occasionally glitch in a cutscene, but overall the voice acting enhanced an awesome story that is well worth playing through.
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav is a fantastic point-and-click adventure game that does not feel at all 9-years old. I played this on the Xbox and it was a great experience, though the control mechanisms were clunky from time to time. The hand-drawn art is amazingly detailed and with the game’s music, sets the mood perfectly.
Despite being an Early Access title, Everspace 2 is amazing to play and there’s a whopping 25 hours of gameplay available to play now. There’s twelve hours of fully voice acted story which drives you forward, but it’s the free exploration of open space that is the most exciting aspect. The puzzles are cleverly designed into asteroids or derelict ships, and exploring planetary atmosphere was thrilling.
Deleveled is not as easy as it looks, testing your patience and mental fortitude. I did struggle early on with the difficulty and it took me many attempts at some levels. It’s an interesting take on the platforming genre and you get a good sense of achievement finally nailing a difficult level and being rewarded with a gold star.
Gears 5: Hivebusters is a short an enjoyable change of pace, playing as Scorpio Squad through their origin story. It runs and looks incredible on the Xbox Series X and it’s the type of expansion I love because it adds more story to an already awesome base game.
Whilst being a short game at just over two hours, I found it very enjoyable, relaxing, and fulfilling. Voyage is an excellent game to unwind after a busy day and I am very interested in the game’s soundtrack as most of the tracks put me into a very chilled mood as I played.
Green Hell is one of the more difficult survival games I’ve played, but I enjoyed the learning experience with each death and the story mode is fantastic. It did get frustrating being so realistic with the sheer number of ways you can injure yourself or get violently ill. It was a bit like playing through Groundhog Day whilst learning the gameplay loop and learning crafting recipes, but it’s worth persisting and building regular save points to allow you to explore more and open up more of the story.