Neil Bolt
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Metal Gear Solid 2
- XCOM 2
Neil Bolt's Reviews
Persona 5 may not pull up many trees in terms of innovation, but it refines and refreshes the things that make a great RPG work. The real star of the show however, is the world this RPG inhabits, and the people in it that you come to adore. Persona 5 is something to sink your entire self into, and end up feeling utterly despondent about when you finally have to leave its stylish embrace.
After over 70 hours I still want more of Sekiro, and happily, there is more to be done in this world after the natural end. Once the systems clicked, I was dragged deep into the game, and it filled my thoughts every time I was away from it. Sekiro is a beautiful, brutal ballet of butchery. It enthralls not only with its magnificent game world, but with a combat system that continually thrills as your understanding and mastery of it grows.
It’s a rare thing for me that a game so completely sweeps me up in it that I still find that same hunger for more than a good 80 hours in. Elden Ring achieves that. I’m already envisioning future playthroughs with different builds. Sure there are small grievances. Co-op with friends could be a bit easier to instigate, a sturdier frame rate wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, and as expected, there are a few bullshit boss fights that end up more like manufactured obstacles than true tests of your skills. These really do end up as small fry issues though. There’s just too much dark wonder and bleak beauty to savor.
As everything started to fall together and the end of the loop was finally in sight, I felt a tinge of sadness that my first experience of Deathloop was almost over. I dragged out that finale as long as I could, uncovering every possible route, secret, tidbit on the Visionaries, Blackreef, as well as the unclear history between Colt and Julianna. As with Dishonored’s Dunwall and Karnaka, or Prey’s Talos-I, Blackreef has life to it. Diseased, hateable life that often deserves to end, but that in itself drives the grim wonder of the place, and exploring its stories never got old. It’s a place I’m absolutely going to revisit from the start again at some point, with all the accrued knowledge that matters almost undoubtedly set to make the next visit to Blackreef feel as fresh as it is warmly familiar.
Fallout 4 captivates with a hauntingly beautiful apocalypse and refuses to let go. Exceptional gameplay is marred by a few flaws, but the Wasteland's flaws have never been fewer.
Two years old it may be, but Undertale arrives on PS4 feeling as timeless and inventive as ever.
Right in the death rattle of 2016, Stardew Valley comes along and sits itself down at the Game of the Year table. It's a remarkable game, warmly familiar, yet fresh as a daisy. In a year where indie games have stepped up to the plate and hit home runs-a-plenty, Stardew Valley is the one that knocks it out of the park and into a neighbouring city.
A frenetic, enthralling, and inventive shooter in both single and multiplayer, Titanfall 2 is spectacular beast of a game that is deserving of a place among the greats of this generation.
Inside is as beautiful as it is bleak. A truly fantastic experience that deserves its place among the very best games of the generation.
If PES 2016 was the best entry in around a decade, then PES 2017 is arguably among the greatest in the series full stop. With extra care and attention paid to improving on many of its predecessor’s strengths, as well as tweaking and fixing adhered to its issues, PES 2017 comes out of it as a fantastic football game.
What RiME does so well is marry pleasing puzzle platforming to a tender, understated story, and then puts it in a beautifully bleak world filled with mystery. RiME takes the baton from the likes of Journey and Ico, and strides to victory with ease.Tequila Works takes aspects of those classics, and puts a personal touch on the results to create something special.
The new and improved Shadow of the Colossus brings the game into the modern era successfully. It carries over a few flaws and annoyances, sure, but it's been refined where it matters most, and the net result is a return to the forbidden lands that's just as achingly beautiful and magical as it ever was.
With Weird West, WolfEye has created an ambitious immersive sim hybrid that sucks you ever-deeper into its gritty, bizarre world of the cults n' cowboys like a particularly impatient quicksand. It occasionally struggles to translate its combat to a controller as smoothly as it could, but the rest of this package is so damn intoxicating that it matters little in the long run. A masterful game with a fascinating set of stories to tell.
Norco takes the point n' click adventure to a despair-stained new plane. I've never been so happy to feel unhappy as I did living in this tech-noir graveyard of a world.
Obsidian has a fantastic history of ambitious RPG titles, but none feel as confident and refined as Pentiment. This is a game that truly understands the intoxicating nature of choice in video games, and rewards you with cynical torment befitting the world it portrays.
While Broken Age doesn't break much new ground in the genre, it does deliver a wonderfully enriching adventure that's buoyed by sharp writing and likeable characters.
Helldivers may not look that spectacular, but it certainly plays that way. A hardcore shoot 'em up that rewards tactical thinking and teamwork. It features some of the most enjoyable and humorous co-op action in recent memory that makes sure it'll be one of 2015's best titles.
Iron From Ice could have been The Walking Dead in a Westeros winter coat, yet it is a fresh and faithful addition to the Game of Thrones universe. The story, is of course, as well written and compelling as we've come to expect of Telltale, but it's the frantic decision-making that makes this latest series another hit in the making.
After several years of seemingly going through the motions, PES 2015 absolutely nails the football side of things whilst making small advances other departments. There is still work to be done for next year, but for now, where it matters most, PES is on the up.
As overwhelmingly terrifying as it can be to learn, Invisible Inc just so happens to be a ridiculously compelling experience. The congregation of turn-based strategy, stealth and roguelike seems like an odd grouping, but my word, it works so very, very well.