Cubed3's Reviews
Ride 4 offers a tonne of content for those who itching for a deep dive into an expansive career mode. Race all across the world by winning licenses to open up access into better and more advanced events. Gain affinity with various bikes and manufacturers on the way to becoming the greatest rider. However, a weak online mode, a lack of other real features outside of the career mode and having a steep learning curve for beginners prevents Ride 4 from being the complete package. With plenty of bikes on offer, and upgrades on both the 'stock' and 'racing' side of things to allow for vast improvements over the troublesome AI, this is one of the better digital biking experiences out there.
Pacer is a delightful racer, filled with plenty of action-packed moments. It also has some of the more glorious drifting mechanics that are hard to find in most car-racing games. For those looking for the spiritual successor to the WipeOut series, look no further. While the vehicles are quite limited, and some of the tracks don't truly compliment the high-speed racing that this wants to be known for, when the right ingredients are in play, then the experience becomes quite memorable. If only the online community had more going for it, or at least if the offline modes had the option to increase the difficulty of the AI. Despite some of the setbacks, overall this is a very good racer that is worth jumping into and getting lost in.
The Pathless is a worthy addition to the minimal release list this early in the PlayStation 5 lifespan. It delivers engaging gameplay, as well as frankly beautiful visuals. The issue is that feeling of familiarity *cough*Zelda*cough* coupled with a lack of activities to indulge in. Too often does this feel like a template of greater things to come, and it's a massive hope that this will spawn a sequel. So many great ideas needing to be expanded upon, mainly the excellent movement, as no game this year has given a greater feeling of speed in its unique traversal system, and along with the excellent boss battles, this comes recommended. Here's to The Pathless 2: Less Travelled.
Oceanhorn 2 has the odd moment which is really enjoyable, mostly limited to the puzzles and bosses within the dungeons. But there could be so much more here, there are glimpses of a game that could be really special, but it regularly loses the attention of its audience due to the barren open world. The presentation feels low quality and dated, the combat clunky, the world empty. This looked so promising, but is quite the disappointment.
Oneechanbara Origin rights a lot of wrongs found in the early entries, yet it still feels oddly antiquated. The combat is riotous and entertaining, but the overall experience becomes monotonous after a few hours of play. Plus, it's barebones. With only a campaign and an endless wave survival mode, the game is slim on content, unusual since previous entries offered a lot of bang for their buck. It has a B-movie charm that's hard to resist, but other titles of similar fare have shown its possible to mix titillation with action to make a great time.
The Red Lantern has the certain indie game charm one may expect. Timberline Studio Inc. makes a decent first effort with a simple premise, good 'choose your own adventure' structure, and a cast of diverse dogs for your crew of five with a beautiful day and night cycle to top it off. Unfortunately, the title suffers from some dialogue and choice repetition and a few bugs or animations that could use some improvement.
Little Hope is a fantastic horror experience that really shows what Supermassive can do with the Dark Pictures series. Though it's a short experience and it exhibited a crash during review, it's a fantastically crafted thrilling drama with amazing characters who are genuinely fun to interact with. If this kind of game is something that seems interesting, don't pass up on this experience!
Harmonix still shows that it knows its stuff with rhythm games, as Fuser satisfies with its accessible, but deep controls, accompanied by a thorough campaign, a diverse song library, and engaging online components. However, having a large chunk of songs only available through micro-transactions, and some net-code issues do hamper the overall experience. Still, it is fun to try things like finding out how well the vocals of Never Gonna Give You Up mesh with some Country or Rap tunes.
VirtuaVerse isn't all bad. It is a solid 10-plus hour plot that is a clear homage to some of the best portrayals of this dystopian vision of a futuristic world. There are a few nice set pieces here and there, and from a graphical standpoint, the visuals pop on the screen and are incredibly memorable. Likewise, the musical score compliments them ideally. However, this is an adventure that never gets off the ground thanks to lacklustre main characters, forgettable dialogue, and a clichéd plot. Worse still, the puzzling point-and-click adventure aspects of gameplay detract from the above more often than they enhance.
Shut In captures these unprecedented times in a small but unique package. With depth far beyond the initial on-the-surface horror story, this experience taps into the evocativeness of a mental health crisis, and the commentary it makes on the dread suffered by those with mental illnesses is powerful. It isn't all deep, though. The narrator successfully plays on the Undertale vibe and the comedic elements within such a tonally dark tale come across very well.
Beat Saber feels like the title that has propelled VR gaming into the mainstream and its effect on inspiring a whole host of other developers to enter this space cannot be underestimated. The core gameplay loop here is one the whole family can get involved in and it is not an over exaggeration to say this game can consume hours once it gets its hooks in. The BTS tracks are a welcome addition and if there is one band whose music seems to fit perfectly with this, it surely has to be theirs. Energetic, bombastic and addictive - prepare to be replaying Dynamite a lot to perfect its tough beat map. While some will argue the game itself and subsequent packs are ever so slightly overpriced, with multiplayer now active and the ability to add as many custom songs as one desires, for any VR owner this is simply a must-buy.
Football Manager 2021 is a continual improvement over its predecessor. While not doing anything that radically shifts the dial, this latest addition further improves the user experience and gives even more ways to set up and run a successful football team. With a 3D match engine that is really starting to do a great job at bringing the action to life, and further touches of realism to player and media interactions, there's enough innovation here for fans to jump onboard. Social life be warned, FM21 is a fantastic time sink and once stuck inside, it's hard to get out.
Strife is basically a prototype first-person RPG/Adventure, and as such, is nowhere near the level of polish of the games that were released after the late '90s. Boring, repetitive, not as non-linear as it thinks it is, and easy to break by not doing what it wants from you, this is fans, and old-school aficionados-only material, as there are better representative of the genre nowadays.
Space Invaders Forever is a three-game package, where one of them is downright excellent, one of them is an interesting and fun concept, but isn't the most comfortable to play with on Switch, and the last one is only a bit of fun in multiplayer. The first of the bunch itself could justify the purchase if the package was priced a bit more sensibly, but this should really have included more of the excellent updates to the Space Invaders formula that have been released over the years. Furthermore, people who have purchased the digital package at launch on the eShop had issues getting Arkanoid vs Space Invaders to install on their system. We're told this is not a problem anymore though.
Tight frantic gameplay, accompanied by a thrilling score and an awesome campaign with a ton of upgrades and collectibles. There is plenty to be positive about with this port, as having DOOM Eternal portable and with gyro controls will please many. It is hard to not notice the downgraded textures and lower performance which set it aside from the sublime PC, Xbox and PlayStation versions, but Panic Button must be commended for putting together such an ambitious project for the Switch, one that runs incredibly competently for downgraded hardware. The price is somewhat of a sticking point given that a superior version can be purchased for much less and is also available physically, whereas the Switch is digital only. These minor issues aside DOOM Eternal is well worth the investment of both time and money and should be a welcome addition to any Nintendo Switch library.
Tetris Effect Connected is one big psychedelic trip that Xbox owners were previously missing out on. There is such a variety in themes, music, and game modes that it is unbelievable that developers still find a way to innovate, iterate and make, ostensibly, a puzzle game from the 1980's feel new and desirable to play. There is enough depth here in the multiplayer modes to retain the attention of Tetris players beyond the relatively short Journey and Effects modes, albeit many will chase their own tail to better their rankings and high scores. At the time of writing Tetris Effect Connected is available on Game Pass Ultimate so there is no real excuse to give this a chance.
Picklock has the foundation of a good experience. There are brief moments of actual fun spread throughout, but these are in spite of the game's quirks, not because of it. The awkward controls remove any possible precision, and the sloppy, typo-ridden presentation makes these flaws hard to overlook. With a bit more polish, Picklock could have been a very good stealth title, but as it exists now, players are better off picking a different lock.
It constantly feels like the bad outweigh the good stuff, but it's hard to deny the charm of this highly atmospheric, dark, and almost Lovecraftian fairytale. If you are looking for a great shooter, this isn't it. Clive Barker's Undying is, above everything else, an experience. It's an adventure that carries some of the titular novelist's flaws, but also plenty of the things that make him so awesome.
Chicken Police - Paint it Red! is a total good surprise. It hits every nail squarely on the head and leaves the player with a satisfying sense of accomplishment, while being a ruddy good time all the way through. Yes, the English written script leaves something to be desired and should totally be fixed as soon as possible, meaning it's not perfect in that sense. It is also somewhat short for the price but this is something we can more easily let it slide when a game is just consistently enjoyable all the way through like it is here. Lovers of animals, film noir, adult humour, police mysteries and point n' click adventures... all of the above are likely to find a lot to be liked about this piece of software.
Appreciating the narrow focus on the game they sought to deliver was one of the better points of the experience. By stripping away a lot of excess systems it allowed a better core experience. The issues are bad optimization that leads to heavy lag and frequent crashes. Additionally the gameplay is too fast for the 'art' style of attacking to truly be effective resulting in a major loss of what was the initial draw of the game to begin with.