Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
Bulletstorm is lots of silly fun, and deserved to do better in 2011. It's still lots of silly fun, but it's hard to quite get as behind the desire for it to do well when it's being released at full price with very little new put in.
I'm far less sure of how someone without that attachment to the originals will perceive the mix of flaws and strengths. For me the chance to revisit one of my first game infatuations did reduce the annoyances, or at least they became part and parcel of going back – you take the irritants with the joys because without it it wouldn't be the same.
This could, as I say, have been all comic pratfalls and Goat Simulator destruction, but instead it's an extremely careful study in how snakes navigate their bizarre bodies around, then transplanted into broadly well-done puzzle-places. I feel in awe of how well-realised this is, almost more than I actually enjoy it. I really do enjoy it though, so much so that I ended up picking it up for my Switch too (making it only the second game I own for Nintendo's latest toy).
I heartily encourage you to grab this if you've got a kid trying to learn it at school. Heck, if you're a physics teacher you really should buy a bunch of copies, as this'll be a surefire way to gain the attention of some of your students. Or if you just fancy reminding yourself about logic gates, pulse generators and capacitors, this is a neat little thing.
At the beginning of the game, I'd hoped to solve a mystery and have a few laughs, but now I miss the company of this little crew. It's a smart game though and a thoughtful one, even if it sometimes hides those qualities behind its clown makeup and a beaglepuss.
I've played it for so damned long, and have just run out of patience with it, and absolutely do not care any more about the arc story. It's taken so long to go anywhere, crawling along every few days of play, and just isn't compelling at all.
There was a big part of me that didn't want to stop playing and maybe I'll pick it up again some day, because there is so much to love about discovering the laws of nature behind this huge, ruined ecosystem. But with each random death, each accidental roll off a cliffside, each checkpoint drought, that love turned to ash. There is so much beauty and intrigue and diversity of life in Rain World. It's a pity the game doesn't want you to see any of it.
I'm not sure how to sum this up for a review, truth be told. I have notes written from early on when I was brimming over with excitement and wonder and I'm pulling them together having lost that sense of connection with the game in its later stages. I think I would have felt differently if I'd played as a non-reviewer and walked away when I felt that interest wane instead of ploughing onward.
It's tremendous at creating its distinct atmosphere and then drawing you deeper in. It's witty, spooky, and achieves an ideal sense of urgency. Weird, clamant and intriguing, this is well worth a look.
As a follow-up to the previous trilogy, it's a timid and tepid tale too heavily reliant on what came before, too unambitious for what could have been, trapped in a gargantuan playground of bits and pieces to do.
It's rare to see such ambitious storytelling and open world roleplaying tied to such a stylish combat system, not to mention the (optional) Souls-like multiplayer elements, shooter tangents, mini-games that punctuate rather than interrupting, and that big ol' world to explore. You don't need to have played any of Yoko Taro's previous games to appreciate Automata, even though it has links to both Drakengard and (of course) the original Nier, but it'll probably make you keen to seek them out. Me? I'm hoping Platinum get a chance to work with these worlds and words again.
Cosmic Express is just as delightful to look at, and has a really solid core of puzzling to get your brain around!
Pixel Privateers knows exactly what it's doing, and though it's about as deep as a microwave lasagne, it's almost impossible not to lose yourself to it for a few evenings.
It's a game of risk, reward and really bad decisions. It's many times more thoughtful than Duelyst, which is always my yardstick for card games. But at the same time it is much less climactic, less explosive, and less creative with its minions and their abilities.
There's no escaping that you're essentially playing arena-based score attack, but quite clearly a shit-ton of money and expertise has been gone into this, and it looks and feels some distance ahead of the VR shooter pack.
Clearly, a lot of money and skill has gone into making Shards Of Darkness, which only makes the fact that you have to battle past this woeful characterisation to get to the strong stealth meat below all the more tragic.
All this and more reveals Wildlands to be a shooter that has been released messy and unfinished, a practice that Ubi is doing with increased proficiency with each passing game, seemingly using their beta tests as demos and marketing opportunities instead of using them to actually test and repair their game to an acceptable level.
Funny, strange, sweet, accessible, as intricate as a Gordian knot with it. Loot Rascals is a smart piece of game design executed with delightful style. Even so, it feels as though the mechanics overwhelm all else – I do think it would benefit from offering more structure and goals in order to then earn the daily-play status it clearly desires.
It all works really rather well, and is accompanied by a very pleasing ambient soundtrack, along with nature noises chirping and squawking over the Eno-esque keyboardy tones. And it gets rewardingly difficult, without feeling unfair, or relying on ninja reflexes.
The single greatest thing about PC gaming is that it's a medium which will explore every niche, and I was glad for a brief nose at this one. It is a bit crashy in its current form through, and that paired with the feeling that it needs a little more meat on its bones makes me more inclined to suggest waiting a month or two.