GamePitt's Reviews
Old Man’s Journey is an emotional, narrative-less experience in which you must guide an ‘Old Man’ as he embarks on a trip based on the mysterious letter he received in the post. Although the game has one core mechanic – the raising and lowering of hills – the game changes things around by introducing hazards and various other mechanics which will make you think. The whole game looks and sounds beautiful with an amazing art style and a pleasant soundtrack which combinate into an emotional story of discovery, loss, and regret.
Vampyr is a brilliant game from Dontnod which I’m sure is bound to be up for awards in its storytelling, atmosphere, music, and design. Will you embrace the hunger within yourself and devour all of the citizens in order to make yourself stronger, or will you remain mentally strong and resist the urge as you investigate the source of the strange epidemic? It may take you a while to become accustomed to the controls if you’ve not played a Souls-like game before, but once you’re used to them then the game becomes a lot more fun to play. There are many interesting and unique characters to meet, lots of side quests to work through, and tonnes of places to visit as you wander around early 20th century Victorian London in the dead of night.
Along Together is easily one of my favourite PSVR titles to date. The sheer clarity of the game, the clever level design, the cute and loveable characters, and the overall setting of the game set this game above others who try and provide the same gameplay mechanics. Sure, the puzzles aren’t mindbending and you’ll probably get through the game within about three-hours without a guide or any help, but the journey of making your way through the game and working everything out for yourself is both satisfying and above all, tonnes of fun.
The Journey Down Trilogy is one of the few games in the point-and-click genre which has made its way over to modern consoles and it still looks and plays great. The game reminds you of the good old days of LucasArts, when this genre contained games with not only great writing, brilliant humour, and an interesting setting, but also unique styles, designs and atmospheres. The puzzles are fun to work through and rewarding to work out for yourself, with a mixture of standard and inventory puzzles in the mix. All of this is brought together perfectly with a great art design, unusual characters and a distinctive music score and voice acting.
The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection is an amazing purchase for fans of the franchise who would love to play the iconic games which helped make this series one of the best fighting games in the world. Would I have liked other titles such as Street Fighter IV? Sure, but I imagine they didn't include these as they are already readily available on the current generation of consoles. There is a tonne of content here, whether you wish to play solo through the twelve campaigns, play against your friends one-on-one, play the arcade online in four titles and have random people jump in to fight you, or just head online to kick some ass – you won't be bored of this title for a while!
Yoku's Island Express is the perfect combination of your favourite Metroidvania game, a watercolour painting and pinball. The majority of your time within the game will be spent flying around the screen as you furiously try and make it through all of the pinball-based enclosed areas, areas which never repeat, never get old, and never overstay their welcome. The rest of your time will be spent interacting with all of the lovable characters, experiencing the humour of the writing, collecting items, and delivering mail. Not bad for the first day on the job for our young protagonist!
Conan Exiles actually surprised me with how much fun it was and how deep the various gameplay mechanics got. The team at Funcom have done a great job in taking on user feedback and developing the game throughout early access and delivering a final product which actually works without too many issues. As a single player game, you will find many hours of rewarding experiences as you learn the basics and develop your own skills and knowledge. As a multiplayer game, you and your mates/random people will find hours upon hours of enjoyment as you either work together or against each other and fulfil your destiny.
Moonlighter is a great indie title about adventuring into the unknown in search of both riches and information. Whether you're deep in combat within a dungeon, re-organising your backpack to make room for new items, or flogging your findings to the locals; the game will have you addicted to its gameplay and intrigued on what's going to happen next in the story. Sure, the first few hours may be slow as you get to grips with how the selling works and you work out how much you can sell things for, but once you get that locked down you won't want to stop playing.
Fox n Forests is a 16-bit inspired puzzle platformer with an emphasis on exploration and collection. It stays true to its influences and expands upon them in order to create a truly unique and entertaining game. If you gave this game to someone, without telling them what it is or the fact it came out this year, they would seriously think they were playing a game of the past. The only issue for me was the requirement to find certain items in order to move the story on and get to later levels. I've always had an issue with this in games as it feels like a forced replayability mechanic, which is a shame as this game didn't need that to get me to replay it.
SEGA Mega Drive Classics is a great purchase if you want to take a trip back to the 90's and replay many classic games. Containing over 50 titles, you won't find a collection this big for such a low price whilst also offering high-quality emulation with added extras like instant rewind, quick saves, and the mirror mode. A lot of the titles are brought into the 21st century with the inclusion of online leaderboards, challenges, trophies and online multiplayer which adds to the replayability factor. Pretty much every genre is included and there is bound to be something for everyone. If you grew up with a Mega Drive/Genesis then I can't recommend this enough – you will explode with nostalgia!
PixelJunk Monsters 2 is a masterpiece, it looks amazing, it plays buttery smooth, and the core mechanics are solid. If you just aim to 'finish' the game and play through all 15 levels, then you're looking at about five hours, but if you aim to achieve a 100% completion on all 15 levels at each of the three difficulties, then expect over 20 hours easily. The length, in combination with the low price and the brilliant, and cheap, DLC which has been announced basically makes this the easiest game to recommend which I have played to date. Fans of tower defence games need this title within their library and are only letting themselves down if they don't grab it.
Emily Wants to Play Too is very similar to the first game in terms of its core mechanics. You will spend a lot of your time wandering around dark environments and learning how to deal with the various enemies whilst looking for a way out. This sequel does mix things up a little with a switch in its gameplay mechanics halfway through which helps keep the gameplay fresh and entertaining. I personally had issues with the lack of direction, instruction and guidance in the first section of the game, but if you persevere and make it to the facility, then the game gets much better. Fans of the original game will love this, and so will people who enjoy jump scare games such as FnaF and SCP.
Khara: The Game is a fun puzzle platformer which will take you around three hours to complete. Some sections will have you frustrated due to the controls, and some bosses will anger you the first time you stumble upon them. However, once you have adapted to the mechanics and learnt the bosses patterns and weaknesses, you realise that Khara: The Game isn't that bad. With your new abilities you gain throughout the course of the game, and the introduction of new enemies and puzzles – things are kept fresh and interesting right until the end credits.
MachiaVillain is a fun sandbox style open-ended building and resource management game which can get as complicated as you want it to. There isn't a massive amount of variety but what it does have, it does really well. Micro-management is the key here, if you would rather set a task and ignore your minion from then on, then this probably isn't for you. You must always stay on top of whats happening if you wish to run a successful dead-and-breakfast venue.
Omensight is a great Action-RPG time-manipulation indie game set within the same universe as Stories: The Path of Destinies. As you reset time and replay the same day over and over with different companions, you will gain new insight into who was behind the untimely death of the Priestess. Yet, every day feels different, the same environments feel new and the same enemies create unknown obstacles. As you level up and gain new skills and attacks, the game gets more interesting and exciting. Graphically, the game is beautiful, with its simplistic design yet bold and colourful art style which will have you questioning if you're playing a game or looking at some Modern Art.
The Council – Episode 2: Hide and Seek is yet another brilliant episode which delves deeper into the mysteries and madness which are happening at Lord Mortimer's mansion. Starting out with 30-60 minutes of new content which is based on how you ended the first episode, the game continues to embrace the various paths and choices which you have as a player as you play the way you want to play. Episode Two isn't as deep or exciting as the first episode, but there is a lot of set-up and secrets to uncover which will no doubt crop up in future episodes.
Death Road to Canada is a very, very fun game. You can experience it either in single player or in co-op with various different game modes and a deep character creation mechanic. No two playthroughs will be the same and each time you die you will want to spend your Zombo Points and jump straight back in for more. I honestly can't think of any reason why you shouldn't pick this game up.
Grim Legends 3: The Dark City is a great Hidden Object Game from Artifex Mundi. I love their commitment to bringing their popular franchises to us on console along with simple, yet effective controls and mechanics. This game was a little easier than some of the previous titles, yet it has a great selection of new puzzles, a new battle mechanic, great stained glass windows puzzles, and a great balance of HoPs as well. The voice acting is great, the music fits it really well and the artwork is top-notch. If you liked any previous HoGs from Artifex Mundi or you're looking for a casual game then these are a no-brainer.
Tacoma is a carefully put together piece of art in the narrative-story driven genre of games. The team at Fullbright have taken everything they learnt from Gone Home and improved on everything from the pacing to the delivery of the story, only without such an emotional ending this time. The majority of your time will be investigating spirit-like reconstructions as you look into the crew members lives and create a bond with each of these people who are no longer aboard the ship. Tacoma isn't a long game, but it's a game which will stick with you and make you want to go back for more, even if it's just to listen to the director's commentary.
Floor Plan was a joy and a delight to play. The environments are creative, the characters are adorable and the inventory puzzles are clever, if not a little cryptic at times. Your first playthrough will take you around 30-40 minutes with subsequent ones being much faster as you now know the solutions – this does impact on the replayability but for the price, I believe it's worth it. If you enjoy point-and-click puzzle games or you just want a short game to play for a great price, then I can't recommend it enough.