Game Reviews
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A Nightmare To Remember: Little Nightmares Review
From the very moment you wake up as a little girl clad in yellow, you feel a profound sense of helplessness. Making your way through vents and climbing up stairs with nothing but a lighter, you realise how small you are. Five minutes into the game, you’re greeted by a really tall man’s limp body hanging from above the ceiling. This is how Little Nightmares introduces you to its insidiously grim, yet well-lit premise. You play as Six, a nine-year old girl trapped in some kind of a nautical prison called the Maw. It’s a constant game of hide and seek where you use stealth to make your way past grotesque looking creatures who are out to get you. You’re also greeted by traps and falls and things that grant you instant death. There is a lot of ambiguity, you don’t ...
Hook Up With Space Pirates: Flinthook Review
When I tell you that Flinthook is a rogue-lite, I can already imagine the tired groans, which are completely understandable. Steam is crammed to the throat with rogue-likes and rogue-lites. However, give Flinthook one chance, and Tribute Games will show you how refreshing and unique a take on the genre they have to offer. I found the premise itself rather interesting, if a bit goofy. You’re Flinthook, a space pirate, blasting your way through other ships in search of new bounty. Oh, and you’re a ghost too, with a gun in one hand and a grappling hook in the other. Your own ship fires a massive anchor that hooks itself to other ships, and you then make your way in to the ship and across its various rooms, towards the final boss at the end of each ship. This is where the rogue-lit...
Die Another Day: The Sexy Brutale Review
During my time with The Sexy Brutale I heard others playing the game bringing up similarities to Groundhog Day, Majora’s Mask and even The Clue. However, what stood out to me was how much The Sexy Brutale reminded me of my time playing last year’s Hitman reboot. My preferred way of playing Hitman is setting up a chain of events that leads to the target’s death, while trying to stay as far as possible from anyone who might get suspicious. There’s an odd satisfaction in staying in the shadows and striking from afar, feeling almost like a puppet master. And for me, The Sexy Brutale scratches a similar itch. You’re Lafcadio Boone, a guest at an eccentric Marquis’ mansion. Somehow things have gone horribly wrong, and you wake up in the library of the mansion ...
2B Or Not 2B: NieR Automata Review
“I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle…and wonder if we’ll ever get the chance to kill him” With this rather bold opening monologue, Nier:Automata wastes no time in establishing its ambitions, or its pretentiousness. An open world action RPG from Platinum games, Automata is a quasi-sequel to 2010’s cult hit Nier, which itself was a spin off to the Drakengard series. Far into the future, Humanity has been driven off to the moon following an Alien Invasion. Murderous Machine created by aliens have ravaged the Earth, while Humanity created Androids to counter them. The Android and Machines have waged a seemingly perpetual war, and the game starts with you in control of one such android, 2B. 2B is partnered with 9S, an inquisitive ‘scanner’ android and...
Suck Nitrous: Full Throttle Remastered Review
It seems like adventure games are returning in full glory, with Day of the Tentacle, Wonder Boy, and other beloved classics making a strong and welcome comeback. And, Full Throttle Remastered is yet another cult classic revving it’s way onto modern consoles and PCs, with upgraded visuals and audio, while still retaining everything that made this game so good back in the day. Developed and published by Double Fine, Full Throttle Remastered tells the story of a biker gang who end up in the middle of a devious corporate kerfuffle. Ben, leader of the Polecats is wrongly accused of murder, and it’s up to him and Mo, a mechanic of respectable talent, to set things right. The story, while simplistic at first glance, is supported by some really clever writing, excellent visual presenta...
All In The Family: What Remains Of Edith Finch Review
Walking Simulators are a divisive genre of games. Some would say that they aren’t games at all given the lack of gameplay mechanics, which primarily comprise of the player opening drawers and reading written notes. I would say that, the aforementioned argument is reductive. It’s like calling Call Of Duty a clicking simulator. Anyways, I digress. I really like narrative driven ‘walking simulators’, specially those that tell a compelling story, which I feel that most action or gameplay heavy video games fail to. Over the last few years, the genre has slowly evolved, from Dear Esther to Gone Home to Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and What Remains Of Edith Finch is easily the best narrative driven game I have played till date. You play as Edith, who is returning to her fami...
Everything’s Fair In War(Hammer) – Dawn Of War III Review
The original Dawn of War, launched back in 2004 was a good old-fashioned RTS. Dawn of War 2, decided to shake things up a bit, leaving behind some of the traditional RTS mechanics in the favour of focused battles comprising of fewer but more powerful units. And in 2017, we have Dawn of War 3, which in my humble opinion can be best described as a little bit of both. While this brings some new things to the table, it’s not all for the better. Now, there’s plenty to love about Dawn of War III. It looks good, the key elements focusing of squad and base-building are back and the battles are a bloody chaotic mess. It all looks and feels spectacular. You might want to brush up your Warhammer 40K basics (just for background’s sake), but even if you don’t, the tutorial does ...
Lizard-Man Strikes Back: Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap Review
Back in the 80s when Mega Man and the older Zelda games were all the rage, there was a lesser known yet beloved classic, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon Trap. Released in 1989 for the Sega MasterSystem, Wonder Boy III never really got the attention it deserved. So in 2017, Lizardcube and DotEmu has decided to bring back this classic, with fully updated hand-drawn visuals and enhanced audio, and turns out that this Metroidvania style platformer still holds up really well. You play as Wonder Boy, or, as is the option in the modern remake, as Wonder Girl. After being cursed by a dragon, you turn into a lizard-man/woman, and spend the rest of the game trying to regain your original form and defeat the dragon. The plot is simplistic, but it puts that simplicity to great use in designing an interesti...
A Shining Star: Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom Review
I had been following the development of Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom since its early Kickstarter days. It caught my eye because of its charming art design, characters reminiscent of old school RPGs and platformers, and its flashy combat. Now that it has finally been released, I can happily say that Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is well worth the wait and your time. Starting off as an ambitious Kickstarter project, developer Enigami was careful not to make an overly expansive game. Instead, they focused on delivering a shorter, yet well-crafted story, with excellent mechanics supporting it. You play as Chado (yeah, Shadow) who has the ability to interact with the Shiness, a powerful spirit. The story starts off a bit slow, as Chado and his partner Poki crash their aircraft on Gendys, and...
Shake It Baby: Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition Review
I loved Bulletstorm when it first released back in early 2011. The over-the-top action style, with testosterone filled masculinity flowing through all the male characters, witty dialogue, and genuinely fun gameplay all had me hooked from the get go. Sadly, the game did not seem to get the mass appeal it deserved back then. So, when Gearbox announced a fully remastered version of the game, called Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition, I was all for it. For the purposes of this review, we’ll be keeping aside the recent kerfuffle that Gearbox got into with regards to their publishing deal with G2A. Lets give Bulletstorm its due credit. You play as Grayson Hunt, the average space marine looking for revenge, while also trying to get himself and his crew off-planet where everything that moves, and...
Retroview: Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
Babes, blood and bodies along with a lot of tasteful dialogue, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project feels more like a Duke Nukem game than Duke Nukem: Forever. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is a platform game developed by Sunstorm Interactive, produced by 3D Realms that was released on May 14, 2002. It was quite well received by critics when it released and got generally positive reviews in the 7-8 range out of 10. But the question is does the game still hold up and should you play it? Let’s start off with the gameplay of the game which is fairly simple. Jump, run and shoot your way to find a woman that has been strapped to a GLOPP bomb and to find a key that opens the exit. That’s the premise of every level of the game and you might think it gets repetitive but after playing through the game I d...
Take The Plunge: The Ringed City (Dark Souls III DLC) Review
From Software had a unique burden on their hands. Their last few games have built up a reputation for being difficult and challenging without being unfair. Fans might argue difficulty is not even the core appeal of these games, but Dark Souls and game difficulty has become so intertwined that discussing one almost always brings up the other. With Dark Souls III’s last DLC “The Ringed City”, being the toughest Dark Souls experience ever was almost the de facto requirement. And Ringed city mostly delivers on that front. Accessible only after completing most of the base game or defeating the main boss of the first DLC, ensued only those up to the task gain entry to the content. The DLC starts with a linear area filled with set piece falls rivaling Tomb Raider. It is the end of the Dark Souls ...