Neil Bolt's Reviews
A promising premise and some well-executed puzzles aren't enough to save The Station from the dull nature of its story and characters.
Late Shift is an interesting update on the idea of the interactive movie. While it brings decent tv-quality production values and soap opera level acting to a genre notoriously riddled with far worse, it still doesn't do enough to stand out as a film, nor offer enough interactivity as a game. There's potential for this template, but the interactivity needs to be much more ambitious.
The setup for 2DARK holds intrigue, with a grim plot, and suitably creepy settings, but so much of how it actually plays out quickly diminishes the horror aspect of it. Respectable enough as a game, a failure as a horror.
City of Light may shine on occasion, but it too often slips into the darkness of bad writing, plot development, and characterization. A season finale that finally kills the hope of redemption for what has been a thoroughly disappointing Batman outing.
There's promise going forward, for the story at least, but this is an otherwise messy episode on several levels.
There is an attempt to make Farming Simulator 17 entertaining, but it’s a rather poor one. Dull, uninventive, and drier than sandpaper on crackers.
What could have been a cheese-filled celebration of the history of one of the most famous movie monsters around instead winds up as a tragic and premature obituary.
Albedo is one of those games that, with a few small changes, could have been quite decent. The shlocky sci-fi B-Movie vibe is a good one to utilise for an adventure game, and it's definitely the most unique facet of Albedo, but sadly, as a game, it never quite maintains any kind of consistency to recommend it to anyone but the most patient and understanding of adventure game fans. The game's protagonist often says 'I see something' without any clue as to what it is he's referring to. That sums up Albedo all too well.
Kerbal Space Program is a fascinating educational tool. There's a childlike joy to be had in experimenting with your space-faring efforts. You'll find it hard to appreciate that on PS4 though, as this version is a mess on multiple levels. A genuinely good game is spoiled by a terrible port.
You can see what SCE Connected Content Group was aiming for with Hardware: Rivals, as the car combat genre has long needed a decent revival from somewhere. Unfortunately, far too many of Hardware's ideas are poorly executed for it to be the saviour it might have been. It doesn't do it any favours to see it presented in such a generally unenthusiastic, haphazard fashion. With variety sorely lacking and balancing currently an issue, there's little to suggest a long-term future for Hardware: Rivals in the heaving ball pit that is online-only gaming.
There will come a day where The Park is available on PS4 for peanuts, and that day is when I'd fully recommend trying its fresh, but flawed, brand of horror out. Until then, the price of admission is too high for the brevity of the ride. Especially for one that has more than a few nuts and bolts missing from it.
There is the odd glimmer of something greater in Gemini: Heroes Reborn. For whatever reason, you never get to see it very often. Combat can be gleeful fun, but a forgettable, pointless story, dull characters and uninspired design work are just some of the things that work against any potential.
An unnecessary port of an already unspectacular game. It may find an audience, but it'll make it as tough as possible to like it first.
Yuoni was on a hiding to nothing from the start, and while I don’t feel the game has much wrong with it, and offers some freshness in its endless dusk, far too much of how it plays has been done to death, and done better. What haunting enchantment it holds is dispelled by the dull monotony of running, hiding, and waiting over and over again just to get a sliver of a story.
Mostly, Code Vein is underwhelming. It’s highly stylish, and has some really good enemy design and gameplay options, but more could have been done with the pitch of ‘Anime Vampire Action RPG’. This effort sadly falls short of its potential and somehow makes a gore-soaked game about vampires a bit boring.
The Padre means well, trying to offer players the kind of Survival Horror experience that has been missing (for good reason in a lot of ways) for some time. It does sometimes capture the spirit of that well, but misses what made the games that it was inspired by into such beloved favorites. Whenever you’re dragged away from puzzling and exploring the mansion, things take a turn for the worse, with tedium and annoyance robbing the game of its atmosphere. The effort is appreciated, it just needs refining.
A heavily uneven story, with generally fine performances, and a perfectly serviceable set of mechanics to go with some pretty damn fine visuals. Beyond is often meandering and lunk-headed, but it has moments of magic that make it an enjoyable enough way to spend a few hours if you can persevere through its failings.
The fanservice (not that kind) Little Witch Academia Chamber of Time provides can be ever-so-pleasing. Unfortunately, it's not enough to excuse a rather dull game.
The chance to properly spruce up Dante's first three adventures has been missed here, and instead we get the already miserly remasters that appeared on PS3. At a time where it'd be great to remember why Devil May Cry can be so good, we get minimal effort and Devil May Cry 2.
When AER: Memories of Old is focused on soaring through the skies, or tackling a multi-room temple puzzle, it's at its best. The rest of the time it fails to register much interest in its lackluster story and world.