Game Reviews
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This Is Destiny Too: Destiny 2 – Review
For fans of Destiny, it became more than just a game – it became a hobby. We would spend hours late at night, running patrols, completing raids, talking about shows we were watching, or work stuff, and always seeing the numbers go higher. It was an experience that many of us had not had before, and in the period of three years, we saw the game evolve and change from a barebones husk of an MMO to an incredible online shooter, that was able to build a strong community around it. Destiny 2 sees Bungie taking everything it learned over a period of three years, and refining almost all of its systems, while making a few things worse. First and foremost is the story. The original Destiny was criticized primarily for it’s lacking narrative. While a lot of this was fixed with later expansions...
Knack-A-Lackin’ – Knack 2 Review
For some reason Knack 2 exists. Someone at Sony thought that this was the game, and the mascot that was worth putting more money and time into. I don’t want to start the review by whaling on Knack 2, because it’s not a bad game. However, it’s not a good game either. It’s biggest failure is its mediocrity. Alright, before I go on any further, let me tell you what Knack 2 is. I know you don’t care, but this is how reviews work, so let’s get to it. Knack 2, and the original Knack, is an action game with a bunch of platforming. The perspective switches from third person to side scrolling as needed, to facilitate the gameplay as it happens. You play as Knack, a creature made on tiny bits, that can grow to towering heights or shrink to a tiny size as and when the game needs you to do so in order...
The Escapists 2 – Review
Prison escape is a fascinating and thrilling idea, which has been done exceptionally well in movies, but rarely ever in video games. Or at least, never with enough strategy involved to make you feel like a person masterminding a complex web of events that ultimately lead to the escape. However, The Escapists did exactly that, and The Escapists 2 does it even better in many ways. Presented in a top down pixel art style, The Escapists 2 puts you in the jumpsuit of inmates, trying to escape from different prisons. The tutorial gives you a brief idea of how events unfold and some of the options available for you to make your way to freedom. The later prison levels, however, are the real experience, with interesting twists to them, one of them being escaping from a transport and it offers excel...
Redout: Lightspeed Edition – Review
Even at the slowest of times, nothing matches the speeds of a good futuristic anti-grav racer. And while Wipeouts of the past have mostly dwindled, apart from the occasional re-release, Redout is a fantastic throwback to the good old days of arcade racers, while feeling just as great on modern consoles. Taking inspirations from the likes of Wipeout and F-Zero, Redout is set sometime in the future where high speed racers are no longer bound by the forces of friction and gravity. Racing happens at speeds that blur everything around you, and it’s an incredibly satisfying rush. The game controls really well, and the track design gives way to some really intense races. You can unlock and upgrade ships, and there are powerups that you can pick-up as you race. The breakneck pace feels great, and ...
ChromaGun – Review
You wouldn’t be wrong to think of Portal when you first look at ChromaGun. You would, however be wrong in writing ChromaGun off as a mere Portal clone. While similarities are obvious, ChromaGun does enough things differently and interestingly enough to be worthy of your time. You arrive at ChromaTec’s test lab, and are untrusted with their ChromaGun – a gun that can shoot colors. You are then tasked with going through a maze of puzzles rooms, all of which require the use of the gun to navigate and exit. You use the gun to color different surfaces, and a announcer on the PA system is constantly giving you ‘feedback’. The game is fairly light on the story, most of it you’ll be gleaming from the announcer and the environments. There’s still a ton of humor here, and the game does a great...
Blood Bowl 2 – Review
Blood Bowl is as good as it gets when it comes to fantasy football. Well, because it’s quite literally a football game based in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle universe, and allows you to play alongside teams of Ogres, Vampires, Orcs, Elves and more. And it’s gets really bloody! For those unfamiliar with the series, Blood Bowl is a turn based game, where you play American Football, with teams from the Warhammer races. There’s a bit of dice roll involved, and with it comes some element of chance. However, the game also has tons of depth when it comes to strategy, and ultimately victory goes to the better team. You position players in your team, and then move them once every turn executing actions like passing, blocking, tackling and of course running towards the opponent’s goal. Players also h...
Sonic Mania – Review
The Sonic series has been through a lot over the years, with the fans’ love for the Hedgehog being reciprocated by mediocre games nobody enjoyed. However, Sega has finally made a Sonic game, with the help of long time fans, and Sonic Mania is one of the best, if not the best, Sonic game ever made. Sonic Mania immediately feels like a game from the 90’s, in the best way possible. There are all the refinements that were needed to hold up to today’s standards, while including everything that made Sonic so beloved in the first place. Excellent level design allow the game to go at really high speeds, without feeling like you are not in control. A lot of precision is needed to get through the levels, and the game does demand constant attention from the player. The gameplay is also tightly design...
While The Darkness Always Ends, You’re Still Alone – Last Day of June Review
How far are you willing to go to save someone you love? How much are you willing to sacrifice if it means you can bring them back from the dead? These are questions that The Last Day of June begs you to answer. Inspired by Steven Wilson’s Drive Home, it is a melancholic tale of love and woe, a game that will definitely leave a lasting impression on anyone who plays it. Carl and June are a couple madly in love. For someone who isn’t an active part of their little world, it may come off as a bit nauseating, but for them, it’s what happiness is all about. One fine day, the two decide to take a trip to the lake. Little do they know, a storm is brewing in the distance. Their trip is cut short when rain begins to pour, and they’re forced to drive back, drive home. Anyone ...
You Hear That Humming? – Songbringer – Review
Songbringer is a top down action game, that wears its Zelda inspirations proudly on its sleeves, and throws in procedural generation to create diverse worlds for players to explore. Successfully funded by Kickstarter in 2015, Songbringer is developed by Wizard Fu, and features around 300 million unique worlds. You play as Roc, aided by his trusty companion Jib, and they accidentally awaken an ancient evil which they then have to defeat. The plot seems pretty standard at first, but the characters and their backstories made me care about them more than I expected to. Roc is an adventurous and carefree sort, and eager to see what the universe has to offer. Jib was a boy with an interest in AI. Just before he dies, he transfers his consciousness into a skybot, and now accompanies Roc on his ad...
Life Is Strange: Before The Storm – Review (Awake)
While Don’t Nod, the studio behind the original Life is Strange is hard at work on a sequel, a smaller studio, Deck Nine, have been working on a shorter, but no less ambitious, prequel to the series, called Life is Strange: Before The Storm. Set three years before the events of the first game, this is a standalone adventure that puts you in the shoes of Chloe, and tells her story, along with the enigmatic Rachel Amber, who was missing in the first game. So Chloe is kind of a dick, and I hated that at the beginning. Gone was Max’s considered and likable demeanor, and when the game just started, I thought I was going to hate Chloe, and by extension, the game itself. But Chloe just didn’t let up, and kept being a dick. So I decided that I was going to make the dickiest choices possible. Viola...
Pillars Of Eternity: Complete Edition – Review
Pillars Of Eternity is a fantastic old school isometric role playing game, with tons of micromanagement, rich lore, text heavy dialogue trees, party management, real-time combat with the ability to pause anytime, and everything you’d expect from a game of this sort. What you wouldn’t expect is to see such a title playable on consoles, but that is exactly what Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Arctic have done, and Pillars of Eternity Complete Edition is still undoubtedly among the best role playing games of all time, even with a controller. The game was crowdfunded via Kickstarter, attaining its original goal of $1 million in just 24 hours, and with stretch goals, going on to become one of the most crowdfunded videogames on Kickstarter. The studio developing the game, Obsidian Entertainme...
The Myst-ical Abduction: Obduction Review
From the creators of Myst, the revolutionary adventure game that set the standard for its genre for years, comes another marvel. Obduction is the first adventure puzzle game from Cyan Worlds. It is a beautiful, innovative game which seems familiar and completely strange at the same time. The game begins quite abruptly – you find yourself stranded on a strange world, without much of a clue regarding how you got there or what your purpose is. The town of Hunrath looks earth-like enough, but it’s abandoned, and some kind of invisible barrier separates it from the outside environment that looks completely alien. There isn’t much that provides you information, apart from a few prerecorded holograms and notes scattered about. Game progression primarily relies on the player̵...