Gameffine's Reviews
Being a Simulator of sorts, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is not for everyone. It shines in highlighting the general norms of rules and regulations. From infractions to investigations, it draws a clear line between the good and the bad when it comes to the right way of policing the public. But a lot of its good aspects are overshadowed by its slow-paced campaign activities and an inanimate world. Thankfully, all hope is not lost as the devs do have a promising Q2 2023 roadmap to address most of these issues. But as it stands in its current state, you should only get it if you have a knack for Simulators or wait for a sale.
If you don’t mind the boring story, dated level design and buy in for the explosive combat alone, then Evil West will come across as a cathartic experience. Although the combat experience, too, is riddled with difficulty spikes and some repetition, the sheer chaotic satisfaction the game offers is worth experiencing. Even with all of these drawbacks, I did have a great time shutting off my brain and slaying vampires left and right. That says a lot about the current state of the industry. If you aren’t sure about shelling out 2k INR for such an experience, there will always be a sale down the line.
Need for Speed: Unbound feels fresh when compared to its recent predecessors by featuring a progression system that’s more challenging and does not take things for granted when it comes to street racing. Instead of putting longer cutscenes, it tells the bulk of its story through dialogue exchanges between racers on the street. Thanks to the new art style it is filled with wet Neon-lit streets with influences from the East. Its array of lacklustre soundtracks, never-ending police chases, forgettable plots, and messy traffic may dampen the experience during long hours. Thankfully most of these issues can be dealt with if you put on your own music and chill with it. Overall, It is an easy recommendation for series veterans and new-comers alike.
The only real problem with Midnight Suns is that it doesn’t look that great. Maybe it's because it can run on a Switch. Apart from that Marvel’s Midnight Suns has deep and varied gameplay mechanics that will keep you engaged both during and after battles. You will be making up strategies on how to best massacre Hydra minions, all the while increasing your friendship with your favourite characters. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a good middle ground for turn based strategy enthusiasts and Marvel fans. Its also a great starting point for someone who wants to get into deck-building and a little deeper into Marvel lore. Marvel’s Midnight Suns can make you feel like a superhero team, but only if you are good at it.
Melatonin is an action-musical Indie game that challenges players through a set of mini-games. Each mini-game has its own rhythm to master. Moreover, players can customize each of the levels to dance to their own unique rhythms. The game is fairly simple to understand. All you need is four keys, the ability to recognize and match beats, a calm mind and a keyboard you won’t accidentally break. The question remains, is it as simple to master, as it is to understand? That’s for every player to explore and decide. In a short span of 3 hours, Melatonin has the ability to teach us to burn the bridges of our past, while making us struggle to not dance to its rhythm while we try hard to ace each round, and this experience is one to remember.
Land of the Vikings is a nice little city-building game that rediscovers the genre with an added taste of strategy and micro-management. It might not be the best game of its genre, but it is guaranteed to give you hours of fun if you decide to press the “Buy” button.
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a good action-platformer and an even better retro throwback. Amidst a sea of retro-inspired games, Moonrider does enough things to make itself stand out. The controls could have been smoother and a game bit longer. But, as it stands, the satisfying gameplay loop and the excellent aesthetics make it a must-have for folks like you and me.
Chenso Club is a fast-paced, pixel-based, hack-and-slash, rogue-like adventure. You get to choose multiple playable characters (after you unlock them) with different stats and perks. Utilizing the life force, you get to unlock passive and ultimate abilities increasing your chances of surviving. Overall, you’re in for the most badass pixel adventure you can embark upon this year.
Whether you’re a fan of the OG or a newcomer, Dead Space is the first great AAA offering of this year. Hopefully it means more great things in the pipeline for the series. They have largely succeeded in breathing new life into the long-dormant IP with such a quality remake. Sure, it’s not a 1:1 remake like most purists wanted but, Dead Space will surely impress newcomers and fans (at least most of them anyway) with excellent audiovisual design, an even brutal combat system, reworked lore and an immersive campaign that’ll last you anywhere from 12 to 14 hoursMaybe we’ll finally get the definitive Dead Space 3 experience at the hands of Motive. But that’s food for thought.
Overall, Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song Remastered still remains a solid JRPG classic with a unique battle system, an intriguing story, and a great art style. However, it also suffers from quite-a-few pacing issues and lack-luster localization. The game’s open-world aspect can be overwhelming, and the battle system’s depth is not always effectively utilized by the game’s difficulty. While it is a true classic in its own right, the new generation of players may find it lacking due to its aged visuals and choppy animations. As for the series veterans, it is a love letter to the bygone era.
Overall, Mahokenshi is a great deck building strategy game with easy to grasp gameplay, decent enough plot and beautiful artworks. The cards are varied enough to keep the ball rolling―the more time you spend on the map, the more powerful cards you get with challenging enemies. I would see, Mahokenshi might be a good stress inducer rather than a buster, as you’ll have to think carefully at every step. That said, prepare to die a lot!
As a platformer, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake doesn’t reinvent the wheel (few games have). It’s a fairly standard platformer, but has all the ingredients that make a fan go “jumping jellyfish!”. A fun story and the signature humour, combined with varied, good-looking levels and a campaign that doesn’t overstay its welcome, do help in negating some of its glaring flaws such as the lacklustre combat and unrewarding exploration. If you’re not familiar with SpongeBob and want just want to buy in for the platforming experience, there are better games out there. But if you’re in for SpongeBob, The Cosmic Shake won’t disappoint.
A Space for the Unbound is an emotional odyssey of love, pain, growth, acceptance, and healing. It is an easy game to play and love. Once someone’s hooked, it’ll be challenging to set the game aside before the 12-hour runtime ends. Though the players can often feel that the game is going in circles, the ability to bring the characters’ lives full circle is a beautiful experience.
If you have played the likes of Subnautica and The Forest, Green Hell: Spirits of Amazonia is undeniably worth checking out. As for existing Green Hell players, it would be a complete no-brainer to miss out on this freebie. While the story can be a bit of a mixed bag when compared to the original campaign, the great sense of exploration and survivability still remains intact at its core. As for newcomers, if you are a fan of survival games and looking for an intense and challenging experience, look no further than this
Miles Morales is an intense streamlined experience, that provides some much-needed perspective on the ongoing story of the Spider-Man saga. With the sequel coming up soon, where an epic team-up of the spider-men is teased, this part of the story becomes quintessential to understanding where Miles comes from, and how he has grown. With powers and a personality that set him apart from Peter Parker, Miles Morales uplifts himself from the misnomer that he is just the other Spider-Man. This is a fresh take, which makes him equally important to the story that Insomniac wants to passionately tell. Miles, from the game, might sometimes make a misstep owing to the fact that he is an amateur, but the game does not. Insomniac ain’t new to this, and the mastery with which they wield this game shows that they are in the big leagues now.
Very often for AAA games, the hype is built months prior to their official release. There will be story trailers, gameplay footages, interviews with the developers, months of drip-fed content that would build up an idea of what the final product might be. However, very often it so happens that the final product is different from our expectations if not far removed. The game’s actual quality becomes an afterthought in a series of marketing campaigns and publicity cycles. However, when games like Hi-Fi Rush are shadowdropped, the minimalist strategy essentially forces the title to speak for itself. Audiences judge the title on how fun it is to play; it’s the purest test of the product. And Hi-Fi Rush passes this test with flying colors. The love that the ex-Platinum Games developers, now in Tango Gameworks, poured into the game, it shows! It’s got pop-culture references from Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures, Pokemon, Xenogears and even Twin Peaks!
For all intents and purposes, Wanted: Dead ironically captures all the worse aspects of a seventh-generation action game. The generic story capable of putting an insomniac to sleep is accompanied by awful voice acting, bad editing and flashy but shallow combat. The finishers look cool as hell but that isn’t enough to save the game from being a dud. Wanted: Dead is a hard pill to swallow even for the most hardcore jank lover.
Loretta is a highly engaging and expertly crafted psychological thriller that wears its inspirations on its sleeves. The snappy presentation and player agency manage to elevate the gripping story to a whole new level. The branching narrative and the replayability that comes with it are bonuses. An essential recommendation from Gameffine!
Despite all these complaints, the boys and I found ourselves playing the game non-stop until 3 in the morning. There’s something oddly satisfying in the gameplay loop that makes you return for more. Most of the game’s shortcomings can be easily fixed by patches and content updates. Speaking about patches, the fourth one just dropped as I was writing this review. The patch increases enemy spawns, made an enemy less spongy and introduced a slew of bugfixes. So yeah, I see Perish becoming a sleeper hit among the co-op crowd if this keeps up. Plus, the reasonable price-point is also a boon. But… I’m not sure if I can recommend the game at its current state wholeheartedly. There’s fun to be had with friends, but your mileage will vary significantly. A safe bet would be to keep an eye on this one.
Tails: The Backbone Preludes is the developers’ move of getting rid of the sour taste left behind by Backbone. The move largely pays off thanks to an emotionally moving narrative that emphasizes player-agency, relatable characters and extremely good-looking visuals. The gameplay may be a bit too bare bones, but the story more than makes up for it. Now that the past is fixed, can we have the full-blown sequel with all the unrealized gameplay mechanics the series very much deserves?