Cubed3's Reviews
While building a Mars colony is a neat theme for a city builder, how that was executed in Per Aspera is underwhelming. Lots of time is wasted on simply waiting, and when you get to issue some orders there's not much in the way of thinking very hard about them. It's… okay, but that won't suffice.
Don't wait for a bargain bin sale. Don't accept it as a gift. Succubus With Guns is one more trashy "NSFW" game, like the thousands of others that can be found on Steam. It's a boring, repetitive, and sloppily crafted third-person shooter, where players shoot wave after wave of enemies, getting sleepier by the minute. The breast physics are hilarious for like a second.
A great stride for interactivity, The Devil in Me propels many aspects of the Dark Pictures Anthology forward, while retaining the choice-based storytelling that made Supermassive Games so popular. The setting, visuals and atmosphere are thick with horror and the story is full of curiosity and terrible darkness. This reviewer was so tense during the game he had to take breaks every few chapters... It's a masterful way to end off this set of games. Fans of horror media, add this to your library!
Today, much like mullets, the FMV is a niche prospect, but it is growing in popularity again. It's becoming a better fit for purpose in tandem with improvements in technology and streaming services, allowing for some more interesting and convenient delivery methods for the medium, blurring the lines of what a passive and interactive piece of media can be. The Gallery presents a compelling story, with some good tension, interesting concepts and even some decent jokes smattered in there, but it's the core concept of how the details shift through the two timelines that is its most compelling aspect. The marriage of content and the medium. Certainly, it would be recommended for an evening in with friends, which is a fair metric to judge it by.
It's hard to get invested with what Ankora: Lost Days has in store. The story and the characters junior ranger Mûn will meet are just… there, the visuals are bright and colourful, but in the end totally forgettable, and the gameplay is all about wasting time while trying to find the necessary resources that can help the little heroine craft the tools that will help her keep on exploring, with fun not being a part of the equation.
Sonic Frontiers is an amazing experience that Sonic fans will eat up. There is so much to do across the title, supported by one of the most interesting Sonic stories in a long time. The new combat and exploration focus opens up Sonic's move set into an almost sandbox environment to play with, which just feels so right. Obviously, there are a few tiny rough edges as expected with such a game, but with a couple of patches this could easily be the best Sonic game out there. Highly recommended!
One of the finest retraux FPS games available, CULTIC pays homage to titles like Blood, and actually surpasses them. From running, jumping, sliding, and reloading, to chopping heads, firing and reloading weapons, and throwing explosive dynamite or flesh-burning Molotov cocktails at the feet of robed fanatics, everything feels awesome. The levels are large and decently non-linear, and the atmosphere, visuals, as well as the OST, are top notch. Solo-dev Jason Smith has every right to feel proud of this wonderful ode to the era it was inspired from.
Despite featuring what's arguably the best combat system in the series, Bayonetta 3 is nothing short of disappointing. Bayonetta's core gameplay is outstanding, weaving fluid controls together with incredible weapon variety and tons of fun mechanics to play around with. The combo potential is high and battles just feel great to play… as Bayonetta. An unforgivable amount of playtime is dedicated to newcomer Viola, stealth segments that make poor use of Jeanne, and relentless gimmick stages that wear out their welcome immediately. Tossing in mediocre level design, lacklustre performance, and a flavourless story that panders towards the current multiverse craze, and it's clear PlatinumGames have lost their touch when it comes to the Umbran Witch. Bayonetta 3 is simply pitiful.
This is not a collection of fantastic games, but a fantastic history lesson about gaming's most important company. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a journey that begins from the distant '70s, with Pong and the 2600, goes through the 7800 and Jaguar eras, and actually concludes… today, as besides all the classic titles, small documentary-like videos, and so on, this even includes reimagined titles, plus unreleased prototypes - and more. Digital Eclipse crafted a rightful tribute to a legendary pioneer.
The story in this sci-fi crime drama is nice and all, but a combination of below average voice-acting,awkward-looking characters, and bad pacing ruins it all. What makes the pacing so bad? Boring puzzle after boring puzzle, with very few of them having any connection to the plot, and even less being fun to solve.
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is a game where an Ork does orkish stuff for three to four hours. This translates to shooting stuff with large dakka, and then buying more dakka to shoot some more, in order to acquire even more dakka… and you get the idea. It's simple, mindless action, and it will definitely satisfy those who love these fun green Boyz - just wait for a heavy price drop, because this is extremely light on content and replayability.
The Chant is a surprising and impressive experience. It runs tight and brief; rarely wasting time but allowing enough breathing room for the player to explore at their own pace. It looks amazing, has excellent acting and a compelling narrative that explores some unconventional topics for a horror game. It is too bad it rarely is scary and is too easy. Making Jess a terrible fighter would probably be a worse design choice, but The Chant really needs to have more threatening foes and redesign them to be scarier. Fighting a massive toad that has a shark-like head feels more like something out of an off-brand Resident Evil than a 70s-inspired horror game with a new-age mysticism bent to it.
Castaway Paradise does a moderately good job of being entertaining. The quirky and demanding characters are funny, and there is something about the game that makes collecting all the items fun especially with the upbeat music. Fishing is not the easiest feature, and with real time affecting crops and other game elements it may not be as easy to play for those with limited time to play, but even played in short bursts progress happens. There were occasional crashes too, but it saves regularly so not much progress is lost. Once all island areas are unlocked and built there are still main quests to complete but unlike other games there does feel less of a reason to keep going other than unlocking new items.
Odd design choices lead to a not so stellar action game with an unfortunately generic, asset-y world design. [i]Valkyrie Elysium[i/] has great moments but is stuck in a mediocre shell that is missing the unique draws of the previous entries in the series. Once the story gets moving it's a good Valkyrie story, but a lack of polish leaves this game floundering instead of standing tall.
The definitive version of Judgment is here! It is an almost perfect blend of incredible details and mechanics reinforced by a huge technical upgrade. A long and impressive title that takes the Ryu Ga Gotoku game design and maxes it out for a new side story while their main game goes in another direction. Heartily recommended!
Cathedral is basically 10 to 15 hours of decent exploration, with some decent upgrades to find, which will help you fight some decent boss fights, while enjoying the decent retro audio-visuals. Sadly, that's the best thing this has to offer: a decent time. In a sea of similar games, there's little reason to spend any time in here, unless a collector of all things metroidvania.
Semi-open worlds with quests in the form of real-time strategy battles provide a sort of 3D role-playing game spin on the continuation of this odd match-up of Mario and the Rabbids. While Sparks of Hope improves on the formula introduced five years ago, some charm has been lost in the more generic lands the heroes traverse, with a story that doesn't offer much thanks to plain characters outside of the Rabbids. Battles are still as fun as before, with plenty of customisation possible, but there isn't much to think about when skill points can be redistributed at will. That may suit the target audience, though, and the additional difficulty options are pleasing in that regard, as well. Kingdom Battle fans will enjoy this, and there is some solid tactical gameplay to be found, but it's a bit too familiar and unsurprising to elevate it beyond the original.
SIGNALIS is a title heavily inspired by survival horror classics, and a survival horror classic itself. It's a fantastic experience that goes back to the '90s, and at the same time feels like a fresh, modern take on the basic Resident Evil/Silent Hill formula. Visually stunning, highly immersive and atmospheric, and an absolute joy to play (and re-play) this sinister and eerie sci-fi tale is a no brainer for fans of dark, psychological horror video games.
Metal: Hellsinger takes the familiar thirst for blood of the genre and runs with a familiar hellish theme as seen in titles like DOOM, but an innovative fresh take on the FPS category with a layered rhythm approach makes the adventure enjoyable from start to finish. The soundtrack is utterly awesome, and while it might not be to everyone's taste it should certainly satiate metal fans everywhere. Unfortunately, the downside is its brevity, with everything on offer taking an average eight hours, at best, to get through all of the content available. There is no doubt though that developer The Outsiders has left this reviewer thirsty for more.
Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits combines the Zen of fishing with an arcade-esque gameplay loop that'll keep players coming back for more. Not every game mode is a hit - with Shark Fever and Ace Angler Party standing out as duds - but Ace Angler+, Legend of the Poisoned Seas, and the core gameplay loop more than make up for it. There is a massive variety of fish to catch, with several different stages and Rods to unlock as well. The actual fishing mechanics aren't explained too well in-game, but they're intuitive no matter the control scheme. Load times are on the long side and the gacha elements needed for unlockables aren't exactly welcome, but they're not deal-breakers, either. At the end of the day, it's just fun to sit back and experience a more action-packed take on fishing. Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits offers fishy fun for everyone.