Reviews
Get the most comprehensive info on the latest games in the gaming arena.
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...
Cities: Skylines – Review (Playstation 4 Edition)
I’m a huge fan of city management sims – I play them on my phone, my PC, and finally I can play my favorite city builder on the PS4. Cities: Skylines is an immensely detailed city building and management sim that takes a lot from SimCity while doing away with almost all of their mistakes, and expanding in significant ways to give you countless hours of peaceful, or stressful, gameplay. Building your city begins with laying down some roads, zoning areas for residential, commercial and industrial purposes, and then providing the basic amenities. It then goes into managing taxes and budgets, planning road layouts, providing more amenities, luxuries, controlling pollution, building mass transportation, and so much more. The tools for doing all of these things are neatly and clearly pres...
Yakuza Kiwami – Review
Originally released in 2005, Yakuza Kiwami is the HD remake of the first game in the Yakuza series, and sets the stage for everything that is to come after. However, it’s much more than just a remake, since Yakuza Kiwami uses new assets, gameplay mechanics, and even makes changes to the story to smoothen out some of the design flaws and inconsistencies in the original title, and makes this a much more enjoyable experience in 2017. One of the first changes you notice is that the game does take into consideration Yakuza Zero, which is the prequel to the series and was released earlier this year. After his time in Yakuza Zero and then in prison, Kiryu Kazuma returns having to relearn many of his skills and also what’s happened to those around him. Things have changed since the 90’s, and the g...
Thimbleweed Park – Review
Thimbleweed Park is an unexpected surprise in 2017. It’s not only an excellent adventure game that’s reminiscent of the good old point and click adventures of the late 80s, it’s also easily one of the best games I played this year. Witty writing, an intriguing story, and a strong cast really bring to life the murder mystery set in Thimbleweed County. It wears its inspirations, like Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, proudly on its sleeve while delivering well beyond the expected nostalgic gameplay. You play as a detective duo tasked with investigating a murder mystery in a town that seems conspicuously normal at the start. Pretty soon you are introduced to a wide array of characters, serious and goofy, with tons of clever and funny dialogue choices. Thimbleweed Park breaks the fourth wall j...
Pillars of the Earth – Review
Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth is a historic novel set in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England, and tells the tale of the building of a Cathedral, and everyone involved in that endeavor. It’s an epic tale that spans many years and generations, during the 12th century. While the book was first published in 1989, Daedalic Entertainment has released a video game version in 2017 that tells the same story in the form of a point and click adventure game. The game is being released in 3 parts, the first of which is called From The Ashes and is available now. The second and third parts will be released in December 2017 and Q1 2018 respectively. The first thing you notice is the absolutely fantastic art style of the game, which looks right out of a high budget animated movie. Characters a...
Sine Mora EX – Review
When it first released back in 2012, Sine Mora was a critically acclaimed side-scrolling shooter with an interesting story driven along with time-bending twists. It intended to recreate the glory of old school 2D shooters, with modern visuals, gameplay tweaks and sharp presentation. Now the IP is in the hands of THQ Nordic who have brought out a more visually polished version of game, while also adding new multiplayer modes. I like the story in Sine Mora, but I can understand why it’s not easy to take to. You play as pilots in a war, and the story is told from two perspectives running parallel to each other. You have the ability to manipulate time, the effects of which are mostly gameplay related. There are time travel elements involved and the story can be a bit too much to take in at tim...
Sins Of The Father – Darkest Dungeon – Review
Darkest Dungeon puts you in the shoes of a young man who has found himself in possession of his ancestral home. Unfortunately for him, it comes with a curse unleashed by the previous resident of the mansion, your dad, who in his greed dug too deep into the dungeons beneath, unleashing an ancient and fearsome evil. Succumbing to the madness that followed, your dad puts a bullet into his head, right after bequeathing everything to you, leaving you in charge to setting things right. Things are looking bad. Darkest Dungeon is a rogue-like RPG, which focuses on the stress and psychological duress that comes as part of adventuring in dark and perilous places. You recruit and train a band of warriors, healers and other adventuring types, to face whatever horrors await that night beneath in the du...
Ain’t Nuthin’ But A Zero-G Thang – LawBreakers – Review
Lawbreakers is the new game by Boss Key Productions, founded by Cliff Bleszinski of Unreal Tournament and Gears of War fame. It’s a sci-fi first person hero based multiplayer shooter that demands the skill based twitch reflexes like Unreal Tournament did. And it’s fucking fantastic. On the surface, Lawbreakers has similarities to other recent hero based shooters, especially Overwatch. But that’s just barely scratching the surface, since LawBreakers does some really unique and interesting things with the gameplay, and is fast paced in a way that is unlike any popular shooter today. The characters themselves are diverse and play really different from each other. There are a total of nine classes, spread across 18 different characters with their own distinct arsenal of weapons, abilities and ...
Observer – Review
Observer is a cyberpunk game set in the year 2084, where you play the role of Detective Daniel Lazarski (voiced by Blade Runner’s Rutger Hauer) who has the ability to hack into people’s minds and know their thoughts and feelings. The game is set in Krakow, after the Nanophage – a digital plague – has wiped out thousands of people. The game is developed by Bloober Team, whose previous game, Layers of Fear, was an excellent first person horror game, and Observer is even better in significant ways. Observer’s setting and visual style is one of the most well realised cyberpunk setting I’ve seen in video games. The history of the world – collapsed super powers, Nanophage, mega corporations taking control, augmented citizens, ability to read minds – all of it work as an i...
Blackhole – Review
With more and more 2D platformers flooding the market lately, it’s not easy to pick out the wheat from the chaff. Fortunately, Blackhole offers surprisingly fun and tight platforming, layered with witty writing, gorgeous art style and a really interesting story. You are part of the crew of spaceship Endera, tasked with closing black holes across the galaxy that are a threat to mankind. On one such mission, the ship gets sucked into a massive black hole and crashes on a mysterious landmass, called the Entity. You the ‘Coffee Guy’ finds himself, along with the ship’s AI, responsible for fixing the spaceship, finding and saving the remaining crew members and closing the black hole for good. You then play across numerous cleverly designed levels, via 2D platforming, with constant inputs from t...