Ben Sellwood
- Wave Race 64
Godfall is all style and no substance. The next-gen lick of paint certainly makes it an exquisite looking stunner, however, at its core is some lacklustre gameplay and some genuinely lethargic missions. The boss battles are exciting and momentarily engaging, and the art style incredible, but I'm left feeling more than a little underwhelmed and unfulfilled.
Scoring around the 7.5/10 mark in 2005, this "Remake" doesn't really improve anything over the original. Yes, the graphics are updated, and yes the HUD and interfaces are decluttered, but the core lacklustre quality of the "exploration" shines through worse than before.
A decent little game for a reasonable price, but it's kept so simple it can be often confusing and unsatisfying to play. The humour and tongue-in-cheek ideology is fun to participate in. The basic premise, minimal weaponry, and simple but brain-bending puzzles build towards a superb game that never quite manages to lift itself from mediocrity.
Definitely worth playing, especially with the relatively cheap £30-£35 pricetag. It's so well presented before you step foot into the first level that I expected more from the in-game content. It goes to show that you can't judge a book by the cover, though it does a lot right, it doesn't truly push any boundaries or stand out from the crowd enough to make it an essential purchase.
A splendid voyage which addresses real world issues in a visceral and intellectual manner, Jupiter and Mars is a superb addition to the PSVR library with its easy going and absorbing exploration.
A relatively solid game, but there are better entries in the series. It feels like it has lost its magic over the years, like an over-polished trinket that has lost its identity, it just doesn't hit the spot in terms of gameplay or creativity.
War Hospital is not for everyone, but it does offer an intriguing insight into 1918's war support operations. The game's bleak and unforgiving nature is compounded by a huge plethora of systems and databases that become monotonous and cyclic.
I thought this game was okay, but this is not my favourite genre to play. I appreciate the story-telling and dealt with the increasingly harsh combat, but the pacing is slow, the graphics are rough and the overall feel of the game is sluggish and laboured in my opinion. If it had been an open-world style adventure with stealth elements and more freedom of movement, I feel that this title could have flourished and appealed to more fans the world over, however, the decision to be a souls clone may be SteelRising's downfall.
It's not that Forspoken is a bad game, it's more that it doesn't knock your socks off. Beyond the standard regime of exploring, powering up, battling, and repeating, there is a good experience to be had here, but ultimately nothing much that is incredibly endearing to this particular game in my opinion.
The Pillar: Puzzle Escape is a very enjoyable game if you're into this sort of thing, but ironically, if you're into this sort of thing, you'll find it a cakewalk. Much more could have been made of this adventure to really work that grey matter and make it far more of a challenge for puzzle aficionados.
Moons of Madness promises a lot but only delivers a rather intriguingly beautiful yet trudging cosmic horror title which is ultimately a disappointingly forgettable experience. With just 8 or so hours of gameplay, it somehow feels incredibly short yet overly drawn out due to woefully slow pacing.
A fun game while it lasts and I can't see it lasting more than around 7 hrs to fully play through with a decent team of seasoned TPS/FPS players. Disappointingly inorganic considering the premise, but if gunning down swarms of Zombies is your thing I think you will get a real kick out of it. Definitely worth a play.
The conversion from tabletop to video game seems somewhat successful, and I can see how the board game has been broken down and reconfigured as a successful interactive gaming package. While it was repetitive in places I could undoubtedly see teams of four cooperating and having a joyfully fun experience throughout the realms of Gloomhaven.
Across the Valley is a basic game that can be incredibly rewarding if you're willing to put in the hard yards. Hampered by movement issues and the usual VR-related snags: Across the Valley could definitely be improved upon to provide a better experience in its idyllic little world.
Party Hard 2 is a grower, not a shower. You have to ease into it and appreciate your surroundings to produce some truly inspired executions. If skulking and lurking is your jam, then Party Hard 2 is the game for any budding clandestine manslayer.
What this game lacks in pace it makes up for in content. Trophies, collectables, riddles, clues and dark secrets make for easily 20 plus hours of gameplay if you really drill down and hunt everything out. The style and presence would be ideal for VR, which is great as that's exactly what Wales Interactive plans to do (on other formats).
It's no paradigm shift, no epic adventure that will forever change the course of games to come; but it's a truly fun-packed, and varietous romp around 7 colourful and hilariously enjoyable worlds!
While enjoyably relaxing and full of wondrous exploration, Hidden Depths manages to shrug off its strap-line sub-name and contains very little depth in content.
An averaging remaster of some phenomenal games, this could have been more than it is. Stuttery load/save points break immersion in the first two games and any ray tracing options are pointless. Thankfully each of these is individually available to purchase, and I would personally skip the original Crysis unless you are a truly avid fan of the series.
If you're a fan of the Movies, especially the best one of all, Aliens, then this game is a triumph in letting you live out your jovial colonial marine fantasy and bug hunt with two pals. The game is genuinely engaging if too short for its own good, but then again perhaps you could say that it doesn't outstay its welcome in being a short and sweet romp through the 12 Xenomorph filled environments. It's an absolute blast!