Overall, Monolith is a bit of an enigma of a game. Worth a go, for sure, but this might be one that really leaves you most with a feeling of disappointment. If you like ambient settings, some light hearted dialogue interspersed with some fascinating story arc ideas and absolutely loooooved what they did to the finale of Game of Thrones, it’s time to blast off and pick this one up! If you're someone who can’t stand a bad ending, maybe leave this one on the digital shelf - personally, I’d have preferred a Sopranos style fade to black… hole.
I think Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic struggles trying to turn what is essentially a 5-minute activity book into a fully fledged game, and it just isn’t fleshed out enough to make it engaging. Once you’ve played for 10-minutes, you have experienced all there is, and if you’re looking for something a little more enticing then this isn’t the game for you. I do still think that if you’re the type of person who enjoys games where you don’t have to engage your brain and just like to pass the time with a harmless task then this could be worth playing (as long as you’re ok with long loading screens).
I would strongly recommend Dave the Diver to anyone who enjoys adventure/explorer games – especially if they are fans of retro graphics and some really daft, but excellent, comedy. Having already sunk a good 25-hours into the game, I still feel like I have so much more to do and am really looking forward to seeing what other surprises I can unearth. So come on, jump in! The water is warm… and there’s only a few sharks.
Overall I’d say I am on the fence with Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit. For a seasoned Point-n-Click gamer, this is one that I’d skip, as you’d likely get more enjoyment elsewhere. But if you are someone new to the genre or newer to gaming in general, it will be a good introductory game to learn the mechanics and the relative pathway these games usually take. (Once you get past some of the less engaging parts and the corny dialogue anyway.)
Overall Trifox is a game that on the surface looks like an enjoyable experience and one that would be right up the street of any nostalgia seeking 3D-platform player. It is such a shame that it fails to deliver anything truly enjoyable or challenging and is mostly just a bit of a slog. I take my hat off to the ideas and efforts of Glowfish Interactive but the execution is where this game falls down. To sum up my time with Trifox in one word, it would be ‘frustrating’.
Overall I can say that I really enjoyed The Room Two. It is the perfect puzzle solver with enough atmosphere and immersion to make it stand out from the crowd. The puzzles have a lot of variety and you won’t find yourself thinking “I’ve already done this one”. Despite the short run time I think that anyone with an affinity to puzzlers and creepy games will have a blast, and I definitely will be getting on to the other three games in the series.
Slight negatives put to one side, I must say that Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince was an absolute blast from start to finish. I couldn’t put it down as I just wanted to get on to the next dungeon, solve the next set of puzzles and get a new item to open up the next section. I wanted to read the next part of grandpa's endearing story and his conversation with his delightful grandkids. The only thing that stops me scoring it higher is the obvious copycat nature of a lot of the gameplay. However, I do feel that although Zelda et al have sowed the seeds of this genre in that special place in all our hearts, The Minotaur Prince helps those seeds blossom into more of the same beautiful and enjoyable gameplay that the genre has to offer.
Gaz and I have known each other for decades and have played a lot of puzzlers together over the years, but we both agreed that We Were Here Forever stood out as one of our most enjoyable experiences. The creepy fantasy theme is delivered in a great visual style and hammered home by some phenomenal voice acting, and each cut-scene dragged us deeper into the lore and kept us invested in what we were doing. The puzzles are well designed (for the most part) and require enough thought to be challenging without causing frustration that disconnects you from the game. Yes, some voice chat problems and a couple of broken puzzles did cause annoyance, but that wasn’t enough to turn us off from a fantastic experience – We Were Here Forever is an absolute must for puzzle and escape room fans alike.
Overall, I would say that Pokémon Legends Arceus is a really enjoyable game; one with a lot of flaws, but they’re flaws that can be ignored or are mitigated by the fact that you spend the vast majority of your time not interacting with those parts of the game. If you stick to exploring, catching and battling you are going to have a fantastic time, unless you have a fetish for reading long drawn-out walls of text about some random person’s ramblings. Bearing in mind that you read this review, you must have some liking for it, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.
Comparing Innsmouth with other games is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges. It’s certainly a well-made choose-your-adventure book and is perfect for a bus journey or train ride on a mobile gaming device, but is not something I would say is suited to a fully-fledged console experience like the Xbox One.
Ayo the Clown is definitely going to be one that will split peoples opinions based on personal preference on a couple of different gaming aspects. Do you like challenging (sometimes through bad controls rather than good level design) platforming and exploration for collectables? Do you like cutesy-wootsey characters and visuals? Are you a dog person? If you answered ‘yes’ to all of the above then this is a game for you, and one that you should enjoy. If you answered ‘no’ then avoid at all costs.