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It's hard to imagine the PS4 getting a better puzzle game than Puyo Puyo Tetris. SEGA's brilliant blend of brick building and blob busting makes for a frantically fun multiplayer experience, but it's got enough depth beyond its surface simplicity to keep you occupied for a long, long time.
Giant Sparrow delivers beyond our expectations once again. A touching story about a tragically unlucky family hits all the right notes, making What Remains of Edith Finch a worthy successor to the studio's sublime The Unfinished Swan. A walking simulator with a smart delivery mechanism paints the picture of a family tree full of misfortune and sadness, but leaves room for some happiness and sunshine. Between the most realised home we've ever seen in a game, the incredible voice work, and the moving, intriguing story, this is the genre's new golden standard.
While some may dismiss Flinthook initially, the game will sink its hooks into you if you give it a chance. The controls are sharp, the progression is satisfying, and the vibrant and unique art style will keep you smiling along the way.
Statik is an excellent PlayStation VR puzzle game: it's cleverly designed puzzles with subtle environmental elements keep your mind ticking from start to finish. Accompanied by impressively detailed visuals, it puts most virtual reality titles to shame, and is a must buy – even if it's a bit on the short side.
During an opening splash screen, an ethereal voiceover tells you that Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was "Achieved with Cry-Engine". However, while playing the game, we failed to realise at all what was achieved. Some moderately entertaining combat aside, the release takes too liberally from other, better titles. Technical issues are the final nail in the coffin, making it interesting to see a game aim so low, yet still manage to miss its mark entirely.
Despite some pacing issues near the end of the game, Dragon Quest Heroes II takes what its predecessor did right and builds upon it in positive ways. Its open world design is definitely a step in the right direction, as is its more prominent narrative and larger cast of colourful characters. Meanwhile, combat remains fun and satisfying, and a sprinkling of new systems add some welcome depth. Dragon Quest Heroes II is exactly what a sequel should be.
The weakest episode in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier thus far, Thicker Than Water is paced awkwardly and doesn't spend enough time exploring the relationships that really matter. A good conclusion sets up the finale well, and there are some standout scenes over the course of the instalment. But an underdeveloped villain and some hard to believe exchanges make this a forgettable episode overall.
The Deer God may be a beautiful game, but behind its majestic facade lies a dull platformer that fails to challenge. All of the your adversaries are easily bypassed, and the lack of engaging stories or missions leaves this game as one of the worst things to come out of the forest since stinging nettles.
Outlast II significantly ups the ante in the production values stakes, but its biggest sin is relying a little too heavily on trial and error in the gameplay department. There's an unsettling story here that wanders into some quite shocking territory, but the writing doesn't always sing from the same hymn sheet, and some murderous moments are delivered a little too frantically for the fiction to fully marinate. Despite that, there's more than enough good on offer here to tempt you back to church. Pull up a pew and prepare for a psychological onslaught.
Whether you're looking to revisit a title from the heyday of the point-and-click adventure or coming to Full Throttle for the first time to see just why gamers of a certain age keep banging on about it, Full Throttle Remastered is the LucasArts adventure that feels most comfortable in the present day. With a focus on characters and story over complex puzzles, it feels like a premonition of the direction adventure games were to take over the next two decades, and it's a pleasure to see it get a new coat of paint and take to the road for one last ride.
While not perfect, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is fairly impressive to look at. It has a beautiful and intriguing world, so it's a bit of a shame that you don't get to learn more of the history behind it. Still, there's a tough but fun battle system to get to grips with and plenty of puzzles to solve. If you prefer your RPGs to be more relaxed and serene then you may struggle with this one, as the fast-paced combat system means that button mashing your way through it will quickly lead to the game over screen. But for as much as we enjoyed our time on Mahera, a poor combat camera and plethora of bugs let it down – here's hoping for a quick patch.
Objectively The Disney Afternoon Collection is quite the value. Priced at £15.99/$19.99, Capcom has given gamers quite the appetising package, whether you're familiar with Capcom's retro Disney games or not. Once again, the production values and accuracy of these emulations are second-to-none, but it's the added features – like the rewind option and abundance of original artwork – that makes this selection essential.
Tangled Up in Blue lacks the narrative heft of many of the best Telltale games, and the individual Guardians aren't given enough to work with in the short running time to help distinguish them from the versions seen in the 2014 movie. There are flickers of hope – usually involving Rocket – that the characters will come into their own in future episodes, and some of the flashbacks and backstory hint that the storyline might go in interesting directions, but it feels like Guardians of the Galaxy-lite, lacking the irreverent humour, swashbuckling action, and the occasional heart of James Gunn's surprise hit.
If you really boil it down, Late Shift is a movie with a plot that you can alter. Sadly, that plot isn't very good. Gameplay is minimal, and where The Bunker struck a decent balance, the lack of interaction here only serves to make the experience more of a slog. This can only be described as a complete disappointment.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a ruthlessly faithful remake of the Master System classic that boasts a dramatic and beautiful audiovisual makeover. The game itself is still very enjoyable with a world map that's fun to work through and a lean Metroidvania structure that introduces new ideas right to the end. The controls are quite loose, which can lead to some frustration, but by and large this is a wonderful recreation that both fans and newcomers will enjoy.
StarBlood Arena is a likeable PlayStation VR shooter that's well-presented and pretty fun to play. The problem is that there simply aren't enough people playing it, and with the online experience being far-and-away the biggest selling point here, that's a problem. If you can convince your friends to pick it up then there's fun to be had here, but with very little single player content it's a risk entering this minefield on your own.
The Sexy Brutale is a very different type of game to anything on the PS4 currently, taking up a Groundhog Day-style in gameplay that is excellently executed. The game is perfectly presented with outstanding audio and visuals that are able to switch the tone of the story from being joyfully upbeat to a very dark within a matter of moments. The story does a great job of keeping you fixated on looking for answers from beginning to end and its conclusion will leave you more than satisfied with your time spent solving its interestingly intricate puzzles.
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard takes a fair swing at the loot-heavy action RPG genre, but its middling gameplay fails to leave a lasting impression. Going up against the likes of the mighty Diablo III on PS4, its dull blade bounces off the competition, but Vikings is just competent enough to survive the scuffle and live another day.
It's really puzzling that in the past six years there hasn't been a lengthy procession of titles ripping off Bulletstorm's excellent skillshot system. Whether you're pulling enemies onto a cactus with your leash or slide kicking them into a furnace, this novel approach to causing carnage will keep you experimenting way past the conclusion of its hugely enjoyable campaign. While the story, dialogue, and characters are as laughably juvenile as you may have heard, it's the gameplay at its heart – along with the updated visuals – that ensure Bulletstorm's well worth revisiting.
Drawn to Death's juvenile presentation belies a nuanced shooter that's frankly a breath of fresh air. The title fuses fighting games with frenetic on-foot action that feels quite unlike anything you'll ever have played before. Quality game modes and an imaginative roster of weapons are only let-down by the lingering microtransactions that have seemingly survived the title's business model change unscathed. Other than that, though, it's f*cking awesome.