Reviews
Get the most comprehensive info on the latest games in the gaming arena.
Masquerada: Songs And Shadows – Review
Developed by Witching Hour Studios, based in Singapore, Masquerada: Songs And Shadows is an isometric Role Playing Game with an art style reminiscent of The Banner Saga. The game catches the eye with beautiful visuals and hooks you in with its interesting real-time-with-pause gameplay system. You play as Cicero Gavar, previously exiled for crimes against the state, and now summoned back to Citte della Ombre to investigate a kidnapping. The story is really interesting from the start, with a rich backstory and a well realized world to support it. There are various factions pitted against each other, and there’s a constant sense of mistrust among the denizens. Watching the story unfold is an absolute delight, specially due to the excellent voice acting done by the likes of Matthew Mercer and ...
Game of the Year, Every Year – Nidhogg 2 – Review
If you’ve somehow ended up on this page, then you too are seeking the answer to one critical question – Is Nidhogg 2 the greatest video game ever made? The answer is a firm yes. Yes it is. It begins to show from the moment you start the game and the upbeat music starts playing. As the game’s official description rightly claims: “Nidhogg 2 has a soundtrack so good that even the menu screens are awesome.” And speaking of menu screens, behold this glorious one: Then comes the character creation. It’s the best character you’ll ever see in a video game. I made a character who looked grotesquely deformed with a saggy pair of tits, a rad goatee, and beach sunglasses. The Wurm approved. The goal is is to get across multiple screens in classic side-scrolling fashion, and reach the end. The op...
Children of Zodiarcs – Review
After its success on Kickstarter and getting picked up by Square Enix collective, Children of Zodiarcs finally makes its way to the Playstation 4 and is an interesting Role Playing Game with tactical elements. The game is set in the fantasy realm of Lumus which is facing a big divide between the rich and the poor. Nahmi and her friends are a group of young street kids who turn to stealing from the rich. Along the way they encounter dangerous folks including other thieves, guards and so on. The story gets more interesting as you progress, though I do wish they had voice acting in the game. At its core, Children of Zodiarcs is a turn-based game where you control units and execute actions. This is enhanced by the deck building aspect of the game, which gives way to some interesting and unexpe...
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Review
While most modern stealth games are more about encouraging you to play in a stealthy manner while still giving you options when things go wrong, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun demands that you strike from the shadows or die. Played in an isometric view, you’ll be controlling multiple characters as you make your way across treacherous enemy territory and complete objectives. It’s very much in the vein of older tactical games like Commandos, but with a lot more depth to the gameplay and a really interesting story. The game is based in Japan around the Edo period, and your role is to infiltrate, sabotage and assassinate as you are ordered. The story is well told and the five characters you play as are personable and have their own motivations. While you start off controlling just one ch...
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – Review
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is the latest entry in the Uncharted series, based in India and follows the journey of Chloe and Nadine as they set out to find the Tusk of Ganesh. The events in the game take place almost a year after Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End concludes, and is a standalone story. That being said, having played the previous games in the series will familiarize you with many of the characters in the story and even some of their motives. However, the game is a self-contained adventure and newcomers will find it easy to get in and have an enjoyable experience with the game. Fans of the series will recognize Chloe from Uncharted 2 where she plays a significant role, and from the smaller role she plays at the start of Uncharted 3. Nadine was one of the main characters in Uncharted 4...
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Review
If you’re someone who has never played the older Crash Bandicoot games – maybe you were too young or the games felt too old compared to modern platformers – then Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is an absolute must play. It’s hands down among the best and even most needed remasters of today, that stays true to the formula of the original games while bringing it up to the polish of today’s visuals. While Naughty Dog made the original games, the remasters have been made by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision. And they have done a fantastic job of recreating Crash just as many remember from their childhood right down to the music, level design, and the overall style. And where most older games don’t translate all that well on to modern systems, Vicarious Visions’ meticulo...
Super Cloudbuilt – Review
When it first released in 2014, Cloudbuilt was a fast paced 3D platformer that emphasized on freedom, precision, open level design and parkour. Sadly, even though it got critical acclaim, it never garnered the mass appeal that it deserved. However, Super Cloudbuilt is a superb remaster of the original, and makes substantial improvements and additions to it. Developed and published by Cloud Eleven, Super Cloudbuilt is a beautiful looking free running game where you play as Demi who finds herself in a strange new world. She has no memory of where she is or how she got here, and as you progress through the game you keep unlocking new information about her. While the story is lean and clearly not the focus of the game, it is fascinating enough to keep you engaged. Most of the appeal comes from...
Procedural Death Machine : Sundered Review
You’re a wanderer in a razed world, who discovers an ancient monument that sucks you into a boundless, surreal cavern filled teeming with foes of all kinds. Forced to make your way fighting through hordes of these enemies, you journey on, guided by an entity known as the Shining Trapezohedron in hopes of finding a way out. You’re in a passageway, and get overwhelmed, resulting in death. When you come back, you find out that the passageway is not quite how you remembered it, neither do you face the same group of enemies. There’s no memorizing locations here. Welcome to Sundered. Welcome to your procedurally generated hell. The reason behind the procedurally generated rooms is quite simple. The ancient races that used to inhabit the cavern had a conflict, which lead to a ri...
Darkest Before Dawn – The Long Dark – Review
After almost 3 years in Steam Early Access, The Long Dark is finally out for PC and consoles, and the end result is a truly harrowing and immersive survival experience along with a compelling episodic single player campaign. The game is set in the harsh cold Canadian wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. The climate anomaly is clearly giving a nod to today’s climate sentiments. While the game features a robust single player campaigns with 5 episodes, two of which are available as of writing this review, the main component is the Survival Mode, which is a free-roam non-narrative survival sandbox. You start off scavenging for the most basic of items to survive, including food, shelter and a source of heat to stay warm. Surviving in The Long Dark is a brutal, challenging and...
Review: HP Omen 17 Gaming Laptop
It’s been a long time coming, but HP is finally making its foray into the Indian gaming laptop market with their Omen range of products. In general HP laptops are popular amongst Indian consumers, so it’s natural to wonder about how they’re gaming counterparts would perform. Today we have with us the HP Omen 17 gaming notebook, that comes with a GTX 1070 AND a 4K display panel. Let’s dive right in Tech Specs Processor Intel Core i7 6700HQ Chipset HM170 RAM 16 GB DDR4 Display Size 17.3 inches Display Resolution 4K (3840 x 2160) GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Storage 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD Battery 6 Cell 95 .8 Whr Weight 3.35 kg Connectivity RJ45, USB 3.0, HDMI, MiniDP, SD Card Reader This specific model of the HP Omen 17 comes with an Intel Core i7 6700HQ processor, co...
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Review
If you are new to the series, Danganronpa can be quite intimidating. It’s a massive series of tales spread across various forms of media, including games and anime series. So what Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls intends to is actually fairly simple and beneficial to the player – tell a shorter more contained tale in the Danganronpa universe. You start playing as Komaru Naegi, who is being held against her will in an apartment in Towa City. However, the life of confinement seems at least comfortable, and she wants for nothing – well, except to be free, that is. This changes one day, as she finally breaks free, only to find that Towa City is now facing a threat from massive bear-robots called, Monokuma. Children across the city have banded together to bring down ...
Through The Fire And The Flames – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – Review
It feels like Ninja Theory is set on proving themselves with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and they have done so successfully. Hellblade is a visually stunning achievement, with a heavy layer of psychosis, fluid combat, creepy voice acting that can get under your skin, and a haunting tale set in Viking/Celtic mythology woven together. If you’ve not heard of Ninja Theory before, they are the guys who made Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey To The West (one of my personal favorites), and DmC: Devil May Cry. Hellblade is their attempt at creating something unique and powerful, and for the most part, they have accomplished that goal. You play as Senua as she makes her way into hell to fight for the soul of her dead lover. She is also plagued by severe psychosis which twists her perc...