GamePitt's Reviews
V-Rally 4 is suffering from a mid-life crisis and appears to be confused with what it wants to be. As an Arcade racer, there is too many adjustments and options you must go through in order to tweak your vehicle, as a simulator there isn’t enough depth and customisations to satisfy you. In terms of content, 22 regions with up to five tracks per region and a variety of weather and time options is a lot of content to keep you occupied for hours, not to mention it’s online and local split-screen multiplayer. However, until you obtain the best cars with all their upgrades, you’ll be spending more time getting accustomed to the slippy nature of each vehicle than actually enjoying yourself.
To Leave is a very hard game and it’s no joke when the beginning message even tells you so. Normally I’d just scoff at that kind of comment, but they really meant that the player would be put through some wild tests of perseverance. There’s lots of depth and a great story within the narrative, but ultimately, only those with the patience will make it to the end. Perhaps that’s what the game is truly about?
Audio Beats is a great example of what a music genre game in VR should look and feel like which is sadly let down by the limited amount of tracks on offer in the base game. This would have been resolved if there was confirmation of DLC coming to the game, but as of yet, nothing has been mentioned. The controls work perfectly, the music is a great fit for this type of game and the various difficulty settings will keep you busy as you try and learn the tracks and better your score.
Doom VFR is a good attempt but I feel the game fell short due to issues that could/should have been resolved. What makes an FPS game great isn't its story or the pretty graphics, it's the controls. You need to have rock-solid controls in a game like this in order to fully immerse yourself and control whats going on around you. Having the three methods with no way to customise them let the game down and really impacted on my overall experience.
Alteric was a fun little game to play and I would recommend it to trophy hunters purely for its quick platinum. If you sit back and play it from beginning to end without the guides that are out there then you will get more out of the game as you will have to figure out how to proceed on your own. As a whole, it's a short, challenging platformer which should last you a few hours under normal conditions and at times can really frustrate you
Spiral Splatter is a fun little puzzle game which will leave you both frustrated and satisfied once you have achieved all three stars on each of the levels. It isn't a long game and can be completed within a few hours, or less if you resort to looking up a guide online – however, I advise you to not bother doing that, just play the game and enjoy it for yourself, it's all about trial and error and getting used to the controls.
If you are purchasing Energy Cycle purely for the trophies then you can expect a very short and easy platinum with no skill required, however, if you are buying the game in order to play it correctly and refrain from looking at guides or cheating then you will receive a fun little puzzle game.
Dollhouse had me from the get-go with its fascinating ‘Noir’ design and interesting story of mystery. Creazn Studio went into this game with amazing ideas, and where some of them paid off well, others seemed to have fallen on their face. I felt that by the time I was up to the third chapter, everything felt very repetitive, the visuals may be different but the core gameplay mechanics of what to do in each level was very much the same. I do feel the game could be salvaged with updates but it would take quite a bit to turn this into a game which is solid from start to finish.
I don’t hate Crackdown 3. There are certain design flaws in the game and it is clear that perhaps the end product is still not exactly what people were wanting to see. Graphically it is heavily underwhelming, but the gameplay itself is very fluid and the game offers a lot of stuff for you to do, almost too much. This is a game that Crackdown fans will enjoy, but I would say it’s best to either wait for a sale or utilise Gamepass to get the game for at least a month.
Tyler: Model 005 definitely has the potential for greatness. Skipping over a decade powered down, Tyler the miniature robot has lost his memories, family and home as he knew it. With an interactive and gorgeous world, lovable characters and an urgency guided by a panicked sense of loss, which drives exploration of your overgrown abandoned home. Glaringly obvious gameplay mechanic issues and lack of a finished storyline are major hits to Tyler: Model 005 that prevent it from becoming the epic game it so wants to, and could, be.
The Darius Cozmic Collection: Console edition is a collection of great games yet sadly lacks presentation and substance. If you’re a fan of the genre and/or the franchise then you’ll love the games on offer and the multiple bonus modes. However, if you’re not invested in the series though any form of nostalgia or fond memories, I don’t believe there’s enough here to justify the recommended retail price. I personally think they should have doubled up the Arcade and Console collections to create a single content-rich package, rather than two diluted experiences. Technically, the games are great, but I can’t really recommend the overall ‘collection’ to anyone but the biggest of Darius fans.
The Gods are unforgiving, punishing, and sometimes frustrating, but this is about you pleasing them and not vice versa. You will purse your lips, grit your teeth, and furrow your brow in your journey to restore the Legendary Sampo by pleasing these Pagan Lords. Miracles are called so for a reason though, they are hard to come by and not easy to find but leave you elated when they happen. Please the Gods succeeds in relating that elation to the player, no matter the path nor hardships I encountered with this game, I always felt like next time will be the time I finally succeed.
Gene Rain is a good attempt at a third person shooter from Chinese developers, Deeli Network. The game looks great for an indie title, with some high-quality textures, detailed character models, dynamic lighting, and a great use of particle effects. However, what lets the game down is its clunky controls, poorly translated and executed narrative, and the sub-par voice acting. I overcame the control issues by manually remapping my pad on the PS4, the script could be forgiven as it’s not their native language, and the voice acting was ambitious due to the fact all the actors are clearly Chinese. However, the story wasn’t explained clearly and it’s easy to forget what’s going on as you enter the next cover-based combat area.
Illusion: A Tale of the Mind is a fun puzzle-platformer with some very frustratingly strict timed segments and confusing puzzles. The overall story of the game, the setting, the audio, and graphics are all amazing and work really well together – It’s just a shame that our protagonist walks as fast as a snail as she takes in everything that’s around her. Issues aside though, the game was fun to play and interesting to follow. I’d recommend this to people who like puzzle platformers where the emphasis is on the story and the four puzzle types I mentioned in my review. I also love a good story with an emotional aspect, Illusion: A Tale of the Mind didn’t fail to deliver on this either.
Extinction is another game which should be played in short bursts rather than all in one go in my opinion. It has a lot of potential and at times it can be a lot of fun and smooth as you zip through the sky on your way to decapitating a giant Ravenii. However, the game is let down by its inconsistent controls, floaty movement, monotonous gameplay and unfair difficulty spikes. There is a tonne of missions and extra modes which will keep you busy for hours, just don't expect to see much more than what you do within the first few hours of playing the game.
I’ll conclude by saying that Sheltered gets a lot of things right with creating a complex system that provides a realistic and interesting take on surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s just unfortunate that to succeed you have to rely more on luck than skill and is further let down by awkward and frustrating controls and a lack of narrative and minimal presentation. If you fancy a much more challenging Fallout: Shelter and aren’t scared by an intense resource management system then Sheltered is a fine survival strategy game to sink many hours into.
Playing Creature in the Well was great because it combined several game styles that I never would’ve thought to combine. After about four hours though, some of the game’s charm started to wear off as the difficulty level started to really spike and the level designs started to become all too familiar. That being said though, I really hope this is not the last we’ve seen of this type of game! With some different characters and locations, I can see this type of game thrive in the long run.
Despite missing a lot of features from the previous Empires game in the franchise, I quickly became addicted to the strategic and hack-and-slash gameplay within Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires. Once the management mechanics click, it’s easy to lose hours as you command your minions or follow your ruler’s orders. However, we can’t overlook the amount of content ‘missing’ when compared to DW8: Empires, various customisation menus, Free Play, Gameplay Modes, and co-operative options, all absent without any comparable or additional features. But, if you’re a fan of Musou games and aren’t too bothered about playing with a friend or having full control over customising everything and creating your own scenarios, then you’ll enjoy Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires.
Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is a simple game with some good initial scares that sadly wear off after a while. When the gameplay works it’s a smooth and enjoyable experience, but the main problem is that I found it to be quite fiddly and inconsistent at times, affecting my overall opinion. The combination of a cooking simulator and a horror game is one I’ve not seen before, resulting in an often frustrating and challenging experience. I thought that the Endless Mode was a good idea, extending the simulation gameplay, but the only problem for some is that they will have to endure through a complete playthrough in order to access it.
Overall, for my first time playing a game specifically aimed at children, I had a great time playing PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls with my daughter. It’s the first game that has truly captivated her and she could pick up and play herself. She would never fully complete it or find all of the collectables without my help, but as she grows older the game will at least help teach her the mechanics that she will need for more complex games. There is a good amount of variety within each mission and a fun selection of mini-games to keep my daughter wanting to keep coming back to play the game. The PAW Patrol team is most certainly ‘on a roll’ and it’s well worth visiting Adventure City to enjoy this child-friendly game.