Neil Bolt's Reviews
I fully recommend The Shrouded Isle for anyone wanting an unconventional, horror-led take on the sim management genre. It really does go to some messed up places if your imagination is willing to back up the writing. The caveat here is that it's hard to recommend this Switch version if you're planning on playing it on the go. It's just about worth persevering with if that is your choice, but it's an unfortunate oversight nonetheless.
In an age of photo-realistic visuals and painstakingly-modeled guns, DUSK is proof positive that good old-fashioned shooters can still be relevant and thrilling decades after their heyday. Especially when handled as efficiently as New Blood Interactive has managed.
Book of Demons does interesting things with a genre dominated by stat-heavy grind titles with furious clicking/button mashing. The majority of the busywork is abolished in favor of ease of use and it’s honestly quite refreshing. As mentioned before, the setup of Book of Demons really could make it an accessible way into the genre for those not familiar with it/enthused by it, and for seasoned dungeon crawler fans it offers up something of a respite from the usual formula.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a positive step in the right direction for the future of turn-based strategy on a mechanical level, but it finds itself lacking in the storytelling department. Hopefully, we get more from this world. A bigger, deeper sequel is a must at this point because there’s huge potential for Mutant Year Zero to be a frontrunner in the strategy arena.
While Hitman 2 is, in many ways, more of an upgrade to the previous game than a full-blooded sequel, it’s crammed full of interesting interaction and now its topped off with a genuinely excellent multiplayer in the form of Ghost Mode and legacy content, it’s the best Hitman package ever put together.
Phantom Halls is a fine example of comedy and horror done right whilst also being a pretty damn good roguelike too. Incendium has laid down a fresh marker for getting the balance of these three elements to work cohesively and effectively.
There is a lot of promise here, but not quite enough of it fulfilled. The combat could have been done away with completely (rare as it is anyway) and the stealth either ditched or simplified. The strong suit of Call of Cthulhu is in its conversation/investigation mechanics. Sure the game would have been a little lacking in variety if that’s all there was but honestly, it would have been a much more consistently enjoyable and immersive adventure for it.
There’s a criticism to be made for Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle being more of the same with a horror license slapped on top. It’s absolutely true, but in fairness to Blue Wizard, more of the same is a-ok when it was great to begin with, and having Jason and so much of his history packed into a compelling selection of bite-sized puzzles is a huge plus. The addition of daily kill competitions adds a bit of longevity to proceedings too. With all the uncertainty (and craziness!) surrounding Friday the 13th in recent months, it’s nice to have something that so successfully celebrates Mr. Voorhees’ baby boy attached to a great puzzler.
So the port itself is fine, but clearly not much more than that. While the games look great for their age, they’re simply not designed for modern televisions and it shows. A visual overhaul could have done wonders and truly made Requiem an essential purchase. Instead, we have fairly basic ports of one very good game and another that is in the pantheon of the greats. Given neither are on current-gen consoles before now, there’s merit to this collection for that alone, but it should have been so much more.
The direction The Exorcist Legion VR takes virtual reality horror in is one I’d love to see more of in future. This very much feels like the nucleus for something more elaborate as the hardware grows and adapts. It doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but it does understand what can be done with VR horror so much better than most. It doesn’t outstay its welcome and rarely resorts to cheap tricks to unnerve and unsettle you.
What Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics does well is offer a fairly approachable turn-based strategy for fans of the tabletop RPG, and also act as a nice introduction to that RPG for the uninitiated. It lacks an extra bit of polish and a few more bells and whistles, but it’s still an enjoyable enough tactical adventure.
Rym Games has created a solid horror title for its debut. It’s perhaps a bit too safe and lacking in innovation towards the end, but one thing is for sure, it never gets boring being hounded by an angry demonic entity.
Transference is in some ways, a tighter twist on Bloober Team's Observer (with a dash of that company's Layers of Fear in the mix). But it never reaches the loopy and inventive highs of that game's head-messing. Not that there isn't merit to the strange and disturbing places Transference goes because it definitely has a good line in loopy. It just needed a bit more substance to the quieter moments.
Sagebrush aims to look at the humanity behind the subject matter, and while it doesn’t always work as well as it could, it does reach dark and revelatory heights from an unexpected angle. Its slow pace should be its greatest strength, but there needed to be a touch more environmental storytelling to make the most of the wandering you do.
Paratopic is a brief trip through an unnerving twist on reality and it admirably packs in so much atmosphere and mystery into that diminutive framework. The most telling sign of its quality is in how its scuzzy psychological creepiness stays with you, whether you like it or not.
Phantom Doctrine is a superb slice of Cold War espionage storytelling tied to a serviceable turn-based strategy. A harsh difficulty curve awaits, but there's reward to be found.
It's not particularly meaty yet and it needs a fair bit of work done on its visual side, but H1Z1 Battle Royale is a fine alternative to Fortnite for PS4 players.
It doesn't rip up any trees in terms of the horror genre, even in VR, but The Persistence is a game that understands how to deliver proper terror and tension for Sony's virtual reality hardware. Finally, we have a horror game that is fully designed for PSVR and the end result is something pretty special.
It may be a bit rough around the edges, but Danger Zone 2 usurps its predecessor with a smash 'em up high score chaser that captures the joy of Burnout's Crash mode.
Football Nation VR Tournament 2018 contributes about as much to football as Piers Morgan does, and is only slightly less odious.