GameWatcher
HomepageGameWatcher's Reviews
It's been just two days since I last player Ether One and I've not stopped thinking about it since. I thought about it before I went to bed last night, and the night before. I thought about it when I woke up this morning. I thought about it when I had lunch. So far I've sunk 12 hours into a game easily completable in four. I've not nearly managed to restore all of the projectors. And I've hardly scratched the surface.
If you're a fan of Bioshock you'll be crying by the end, simply because it's over. You'll be shocked at how great it all was.
Through skill and careful Augmentation use you can make your way through the game, discover new facts about Adam Jensen and Ben Saxon's world, and basically have another 5-7 hour chunk of the Deus Ex experience, and at the end of the day that's a good thing. Even if that experience is (shudder) Invisible War.
It veers between a showcase for ambitious design and an exercise in endurance as you grapple with the controls and wince at the obvious problems, willing the game to live up to its fantastic premise. But it never quite does.
Luftrausers is a great a time-waster, a great test of your leet twitch skills, and a game that doesn't assume too much and just lets you enjoy yourself. You'll notice that Devolver have published this game – I sometimes think Hotline Miami could learn a thing or two here.
Whilst 1954 Alcatraz does certain things very well, it too often lets itself down.
I rarely question the very existence of a game, but I can't help but project a question mark onto LOD Tactics. It's not a particularly good advert for the brand, or the MMO. It's way too pricey for what it is, and it's got very little replayability.
If Telltale can keep pushing the boundaries like this for the rest of the season then it'll be at the very least as good as the superb first season. Until next time….
Blasting away at alien hordes does eventual get a little repetitive as you fall back into the same routine of building turrets to secure captured zones and slowly pushing forward into enemy territory, and enemy unit design is a little uninspired (they basically all look like blue and purple grubs), but all in all Infested Planet takes a simple concept and makes it into a satisfying and addictive experience. Well worth your time.
Buy it, love it, play it again with a different buddy, but always remember - never fart on another man's balls. Okay? Good, we're done.
Match this with the Californian outfit's reimagining of Killer Instinct last year, and it would appear they know what they're doing when reinterpreting the classics. By adopting a Metroidvania-guise here, rather, gear-gating, Double Helix shows that it can in fact teach an old dog new tricks.
If you put the lack of missions aside as a consequence of the budget price tag, Banished is still a flawed game. There's brilliant concepts and a core that shines, but a troublesome interface and a general lack of breadth of content is clearly an issue. With all that noted, there's still something strangely and subversively compelling about it in the end. Knowing and feeling all I do, I still want to go back and play some more - and that is likely telling.
It's still enjoyable, but it's too wide of the mark. And that's a taffing shame.
The lack of anything not done before and the run of the mill story still leave the game a decent gaming experience, there's still plenty to see and plenty to kill, and, as mentioned before, there is a great sense of games and level design competency which oozes from the seams. For third person action veterans it probably won't quite cut the mustard, but for Castlevania fans who are still digging the reboot this will be another good title in the reimagining of a classic series.
"Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!" said John Rambo in First Blood. As far as the videogame is concerned, I'm sorry mate, I just don't agree.
NaissanceE could've been a neat game but Limasse Five should've just stuck with making a cool artistic world and left the actual gameplay at home. I may have then complained that there wasn't enough game in it, but at least I would have actually enjoyed it.
Whether or not they follow through with the content remains to be seen at this stage, but Strike Vector's launch is a promising start that deserves a larger player base than it's currently got. Once the initial learning curve is hurdled, this is a pick-up-and-play game of frantic, twitch-based action with a distinctive old-school shooter tucked behind its pretty visuals. Once you're there, this is a fast, unforgiving, graceful and exciting experience.
Smoke & Mirrors isn't quite as good as the superb Faith and is a little shorter, which is a kick in the flying monkey nuts after how long it took to turn up, but it's still an excellent and enjoyable adventure full of intrigue, surprise and emotion. If Telltale keep this up they could well end up eclipsing The Walking Dead for me, and I nominated that for our Game of the Year. Just, er, could we have Episode 3 a little sooner please?
At the moment Loadout provides a diverting break from other titles on the market like the aforementioned Team Fortress 2 but it's difficult to see people choosing it over more polished rivals in the long-term. Annihilation mode could change that if Loadout finds a player-base willing to forgive a few flaws and buy into its silly yet appealing sense of humour.
In fact I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like this game, but while I'm excited for the internet to get at it so I can find out what I missed, at two hours long many people might find it hard to justify a purchase. Just keep the meter running, I'll be right back.