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Author: Dan

Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)

As I’ve said in previous Call of Duty games, I actually don’t mind th franchise as a whole. I understand it’s cool and hip to hate on the popular franchises these days, but Call of Duty games have always managed to entertain me for the few hours I need to put into them. There’s something about the sheer bombastic nature of the campaigns that’s both lethargic, and somewhat entertaining. All this is to say, it’s awesome to see the fruits of a publisher/developers labour when money is (almost) no obstacle, especially when Call of Duty games of years past have been able to generate billions in revenue within the first 24 hours alone.

So with all that being said, we move on to the uncomfortable middle game of the series, one that could even be argued has stated the demise of on of the biggest sellers in gaming history; Call of Duty Ghosts.

First up Ghost’s campaign, which, considering I’ve enjoyed the previous two campaigns I’ve played, comes somewhat of a surprise to say: I genuinely didn’t like it. From the barebones narrative of a united South America taking on the USA, to the stupid, brutish characters and their constant shouting of “we’re ghosts!!!”, the whole campaign was stupid and lacked any nuance whatsoever.

Even the few characters you meet throughout the game’s short 5-6 hour campaign are so generic that they rarely take their masks off, meaning we literally have a a couple of characters which are mimicking the modern warfare series’ “Ghost”. In fact, I would not be surprised if Neversoft were struggling to think up a story, proceeding to look to the Modern Warfare series, and proceeded to centre and entire narrative around the one faceless character they liked. It’s weird, because COD in recent years has really come a long way in their story telling, so it’s so odd that they had such a bad year in 2013.

Onto the gameplay, which you could guess is just as fast paced and smooth as possible. As always with a Call of Duty title, Neversoft managed to keep to the 60fps lock for the most part, and proceeded to keep you constantly on your toes as you mow down countless foes. My only issue here is the way Neversoft constantly try to take control away from you as the player to show a big explosion, or water falling through a city. These big set-pieces look cool, don’t get me wrong, but they add nothing to the gameplay, and if anything, take agency away from me for trying to get to my end destination. It’s confusing, and feels like a cheap way to add “excitement” to the otherwise smooth shooting mechanics.

Settings wise, Ghosts at least manages to change up the scenery every now and then, giving you a variety of mission locales, from the deserts of chilli, to the frozen lands of Antartica, all manner of different terrains are explored, and it actually helps in keeping the campaign feeling fast paced. Unfortunately, whilst each locale looks different, and in some instances stunning to observe, they for the most part are generic and lacking any detail. As per my reviews with Battlefield, I found that if you only look at the content the developers want you to look at (the other characters on screen + the main path you walk) then the detail is superb, but the second you start to wonder around the level you notice the rest of the geometry and aesthetics are fairly simply, with repeated textures and objects used throughout. It’s a shame, as the change in locale’s actually could have helped the game stand out from the crowd.

I know my reviews usually last a lot longer than this, but man oh man was I not impressed with Ghosts. From the boring dialogue of macho men constantly saying what people thing hard men say, to the bog-standard gameplay typical of a COD game, from start to finish I was merely playing the game purely to finish it for my 52 games in 2017. If you want to play a COD game, don’t get Ghost’s; there’s plenty of good titles in the Call of Duty catalogue, and this definitely is not one of them.

2/5

29/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Submerged (PC)

It’s been a while since I’ve played an incomplete, rough indie game, and weirdly enough, I wasn’t actually going out of my way to do that. But that was the case with Submerged – a weirdly ambitious indie platformer that proceeded to push the boat (literally) in the graphics department, but also felt so rough that I ended up almost quitting the game. Lets take some time to disseminate why.

Submerged has you playing as a teen who is looking to help her injured brother. The very start of the game makes you know this is a world unlike our own, as the whole world is “submerged” in water, with only the tops of skyscrapers being accessible for humans. Playing as the unnamed girl, you proceed to sail the sea hoping from one building to another finding collectibles and old medical equipment for your ill brother.

With that context out the way, let’s talk about the good things Submerged brought to the table.

Graphically, Submerged is both one of the prettiest indie games I’ve seen in a while, as well as the roughest. Some scenes took my breath away, especially the dynamic weather on display through your travels throughout the world. Having the absolutely stunning skies, sunsets and sunrises follow your main character as you explore the world was fantastic, and had me more often than not standing still and watching as the world passed me by.

Another thing submerged done right was its UI, or to put it another way: its ability to say a lot without saying anything at all. There is very little text used throughout the game, with most story points, as well as objectives told through simple symbology or animations. I was surprised and excited at how much I was able to understand the world and it’s backstory based on nothing more than simple abstract cards that are collected throughout the game. It gave me true inspiration for my own games in the future, and is definitely a highlight of how well games can do when they try their best to portray elements to players of many different walks of life through simple human-understandable images.

Collectibles was another strong point that kept me playing far longer than the game required just so I had everything the game had to offer. The world is vast, and as such, has many islands that hide collectibles throughout, as well as powerups for your boat within the

On the rough side is the absolutely atrocity that is the textures, repeating of assets, and just simply flat world the developers at Uppercut Games have conjured up. Terribly detailed and bump mapped lion textures adorn every surface, with their intention meaning to bring more detail to the world, but instead detract from the beauty of the environmental effects. Textures were so flat and dull that even my girlfriend pointed it out, saying it looked terrible. Considering my other half usually doesn’t care about graphics, it shows how bad they really are.

The animations too are lacklustre and provide no life to the characters you’re meant to care about. Every morning your female player discovers that she is increasingly getting more moldy, with green spores covering her arms – but I just don’t believe that she’s actually worried. Each day her animations for climbing are exactly the same, and just don’t give the feeling that she’s pushing through pain to save her brother.

Then there’s the gameplay of getting to the main game objectives themselves. For one, your character cannot walk, jump, or in fact, do any of the things you would expect in a platformer. Instead, you simply walk up to a wall, continue to press forward and have your character traverse the environment like you would in Assassin’s Creed – all without any button prompts. It’s weird, but the lack of actual control of my character made the actual traversal of the world extremely boring – I simply felt like a bystander willing the character to their next inevitable position.

It seems that in striving for simplicity, Submerged becomes all but mundane, making me bored when traversing environments, and requires so little input from the player that I was able to play a lot of the game one handed.

The buildings you traverse weren’t exactly exciting either – there are multiple paths to take usually, with some resulting in dead ends, and others leading to collectibles. If anything I found the map design of the buildings the most frustrating part of Submerged: 5 minutes of slow traversal could result in nothing in you took the wrong path, with no way of getting back to the start of the building in any timely fashion, yet again resulting in more wasted time.

Despite the rough edges, there is some charm to be had in Submerged. I may not believe it’s anywhere near as good as some of the reviews I recall reading when the game was first released, but it was still a nice way to kill some hours, and a great way to find collectibles across a whole map. By all means give the game a go if you like finding lots of collectibles, just be warned that the graphics, gameplay and even controls are a little rough, and as such, you should know about that before going in.

3/5

22/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Super Mario Run (iOS)

Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming may have been a massive hit (Pokemon Go) but their first premium game is certainly a mixed bag of weirdness. Super Mario Run costs the grand old price of £7.99, not an extravagant price when comparing it to the traditional games market, but certainly pricey on mobile platforms. So what do you get for your money? Let’s find out.

First up, Super Mario Run is a running platofrmer, but because you can’t control a phone as easily as you would a traditional console and controller, the game is a forever runner – Mario himself moves forward regardless as to whether you actually press anything or not. This is a massive break from previous mario games, with their precise controls, but is understandable due to the constraints of mobile phone’s designs.

Nintendo made a big point of advertising the fact you control Mario with only one hand, and whilst it works absolutely fine, it does change the players relationship with Mario. You see, Mario in most games is renowned for his precision – where you want him to go, he will go. This 1:1 relationship between what you do on the controller and Mario actually moving is one of the main reasons the Mario franchise has been so successful. The issue is, having Mario move himself forward makes it hard to judge when to actually jump, or the to tap the screen to make him kill an enemy.

This disconnection between player and movement actually has far reaching consequences. I for one love mario games – they can be both simplistic, and extremely hard depending on your skill level. Super Mario 3D World for example, I managed to collect every single optional coin, and even completed the extra hard special levels, all because of how much I enjoyed controlling Mario. Yet, in super Mario Run, I struggled in even simple levels, accidentally making Mario fall to his death multiple times just because I mis-timed a jump or accidentally used my double-jump far too soon. It’s annoying, and actually made me walk away from the game for several months.

But it’s not all bad, Super Mario Run actually distills the core of Mario games into a mobile platform quite well. Enemies we all know and love go about levels exactly as you’d expect, and are great to take on. There’s no new enemies to take on, but due to some of the level changes some enemies do move in new and different ways. Take the Boo’s for example – as Mario can’t change direction manually, they are usually used as obstacles on your path e.g. popping out of blocks, as opposed to enemies you can actively avoid and use to your advantage.

As alluded to in the previous chapter, Mario’s new control system has resulted in some level design changes. The most dramatic ones are Bowser’s castle levels, and the haunted house levels. The former doesn’t entail having multiple levels (levels being platforms above and below the one you’re currently on), whilst the latter consists of very thin levels with lots of blocks that pause Mario and allow him to move again when tapping the screen. This is all fine and good and takes a little longer to get used to than usual, but results in some new gameplay that can get a bit confusing.

On the subject of levels, it has to be noted how few levels there actually are. In total, there’s 18 levels and 6 castle levels, all which can be completed in around 1 minute, resulting in a really short game. The way Nintendo goes about making the game longer is through collecting optional coins – each level contains 5 purple coins. Should you collect them all, you’ll unlock a new version of the level with 5 new coins. Do this 3 times, and you’ve collected everything that level has to offer. I’m usually a fan of these optional objectives, but genuinely had no interest in it here on Super Mario Run. Maybe it was because there’s no way to go back to collect a coin, meaning it’s more memory of the level than your actual skill, resulting if you having to repeat a level multiple times just to get a single coin, but I just couldn’t enjoy this aspect of the game.

Thankfully, the graphics are just as good as ever, with Mario looking just as detailed, if not more so than on Nintendo’s own consoles themselves. Levels are lovely and detailed, and the amount of aliasing being used makes Super Mario Run look like a pixar film at times. It’s just so smooth and detailed, it’s genuinely lovely to look at.

Unfortunately, it seems that Nintendo might have been in two minds when making Super Mario Run. You see, whilst it’s a premium game with a premium price tag, it’s completely cluttered with free to play elements, something that seems at odds with the game’s core design. You see, you start in a hub world where you must start to rebuild the mushroom kingdom using Toads earned through repeating levels in the game’s “Rally” mode, and coins earned in levels. Not only does this try to get you to repeat levels endlessly, it also proceeds to tally up how many enemies you’ve killed giving you special unlocks should you kill so many.

This split personality of premium/free to play couldn’t help but make me feel…. gross for playing Super Mario Run. If the game would have been free-to-play, most of these mechanics would have been completely acceptable – Nintendo need to make money, so keep you coming back is the way to go. But, if I’ve paid a non-inconsequential fee to play the game, I don’t expect to be bombarded with all of this shit. I should be able to play the game as and when I want, and not pestered to spend more time in Mario’s world. It’s a weird mismatch of a game, and one that I wish Nintendo would have fully committed to one or the other.

Overall, I’m glad Nintendo is foraying into brand new territory, but it needs to do so with some consistency. Trying to incorporate Free-to-play mechanics into a premium game makes it both annoying, but also is a subservience to fans of the series, and first-time players alike. It’s enjoyable for a few hours, but Super Mario Run is a weird mix of a platformer that alienates fans of the series, and becomes too expensive for the casual player. By all means give the game a download if you need to see everything Nintendo produces, but be warned that you may not find it as enjoyable as Nintendo games of yester-year.

3/5

15/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Refunct (PC)

I’ll tell you what, it’s been a while since I’ve gone out of my way to find an indie game. Given how much work I find myself doing these days, that’s a massive shame; it’s always good to see what’s on the market and what your fellow developers are up to. So with it being the Steam Summer sale, I saw one game that peaked my interest: Refunct.

The minimalist trailer certainly done it justice, and showed off how simplistic the game truly is, so I’m sorry if this review is a little on the short side. Regardless of length, it’s 64p pricetag interested me so much, that I immediately downloaded the game and proceeded to play through all it had to offer.

Refunct is a parkour platformer that has you jumping across many 3D cubes on water, both to turn them green and give them life, but to also press switches across the stage to make more of these blocks appear. It sounds simple, but that’s because it is. That sentence above is the game in its entirety, and it’s bloody beautiful.

Jumping around the world feels natural and seamless, more so with an xbox controller plugged in. The controls are simple to learn; simply press RB to jump, and LB to slide, and you’re basically good to go! You’ll pick up new tricks as you progress towards revealing every single cube on the map, such as wall jumping and climbing, and everything just feels well thought out and right.

It’s even more splendid that there’s no text or tutorials in Refunct – simply start running around and the platforms you need to make your way to will teach you all you need to know. It’s charming how damns simple the game is, and has even made me rethink how I approach game design – if you can have this much fun in something so simple, do I really need to be spending ages making systems users may never use?

As you progress in pressing more switches, the platforms get harder to climb, with switches moving further and further away. Refunct has a progression so to speak, but one that doesn’t exclude anyone – the game is easily completable by anyone.

When I say completable by anyone, I truly mean it: ensuring I went out of my way to collect everything the game had to offer (e.g. touch each cube, making sure the whole world was coloured in), I completed Refunct within 25 minutes. Some may complete it even faster, and news may take a little longer. Regardless of your skill level, Refunct is short, but certainly makes an impression in it’s limited time.

Graphically, the game is pretty, and has a dynamic lighting system which blends between night and day, but at the end of the day, all you’re looking at is pretty cubes. It’s nice to look at, don’t get me wrong, but you are literally just looking at cubes, and anyone can make cubes look pretty, right?

So what more is there to say? One negative that could be thrown its way is the lack of any story, as all you’re doing is running around cubes on the water. Why are the cubes there? Why are you pressing these switches? Whilst I personally feel the lack of story is that much of a big deal, it could have helped Refunct have more staying power with players, giving them a much more memorable experience with maybe a surprise ending rather than just not knowing when you actually finished.

That’s definitely one negative in my opinion; the endgame. Once I’d coloured everything in and pressed every button, I proceeded to run around the map changing the colours of all the cubes for fun. Thinking this was a new mode, or a new section of the game I ran around the environment for 5-10 minutes, wondering if anything would happen. Pressing start eventually, I found that nope, I had 100% the game, meaning my wondering around was for nothing. The end of the game could have definitely been choreographed better, that’s for certain.

So all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Refunct. It may be simplistic, and short, but it certainly left an impression, and has made me think about how I create games myself. Should you have a spare half an hour, and want to enjoy yourself for that entire time, you can’t go wrong with Refunct.

4/5

08/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Subsurface Circular (PC)

Hey all,

This week, I’m looking at another Mike Bithell game. This one come out of nowhere, which in turn made me push back quite a few other reviews, but for good reason. It’s a short, narrative driven game which could be considered a text-adventure game. You play as a Tek (this world’s robots), who has to investigate and get to the bottom of why Tek’s are disappearing.

Through sitting down and not moving at all, you interact with other Tek’s as they get on and off the subway cart you’re on. It’s a unique concept, and one I really enjoyed. If you want to read my full review, you can do so at the link below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269115/subsurface-circular-pc/

Anyway! Until next week!

-Dan

01/09/2017
Weekly Gaming: Sonic Mania (PS4 Pro)

Hey all!

Welcome back to weekly gaming! This week, I review Sonic Mania, a game I’ve been waiting to be released for a long time. Having been raised on Sonic, Sonic Mania manages to hit all the right nostalgia notes, all whilst bring lots of new and refreshing ideas to the table.

You can read my full review at the link below, but SPOILER ALERT: I like the game, a lot.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269085/sonic-mania-ps4/

Anyway, until next week!

-Dan

25/08/2017
Weekly Gaming: Pokemon Moon (3DS)

Deary me has it been a while since I started playing Pokemon Moon. Having preordered the game last November, I proceeded to play the game straight for 20 hours, loving every moment of it. But for some reason, I fell off the Pokemon bandwagon and never actually got around to completing it – until now that is.

First up, you already know how Pokemon games go: As a 10 year old boy or girl, you proceed to meet the new professor of the place you’ve moved to, attaining your first pokemon, making you a newly qualified trainer. You make your way to the first gym, and proceed to take on the gym owner to gain a badge.

Except!

Not so this time round. The start’s the same in that you gain a starter pokemon, but everything from there changes. Gone are the gym’s from every other game in the series, which are instead replaced by trials across each of the 4 hawaiian islands. Once each trial has successfully been completed on a given island, you’re then able to take on that island’s “Kahuna” – the island protector so to speak. Whilst this has the same kind of layout as previous games, it changes immensely when actually partaking in the trails themselves.

You see, each trial will not only have you doing certain puzzles or taking on certain pokemon, but each trial will also conclude with a battle against a huge pokemon – one that’s stronger and bigger than the rest of it’s kind. For example, one of the first you take on within a cave ends with a battle against a Raticate; a simple enough battle you would think. Except, the battle ended up taking quite a while, not only because the Raticate was stronger than average, but also because it was able to summon other pokemon to fight at it’s side.

These trials were certainly a great mix-up to the age old pokemon formula, and even gave me quite a few challenges I didn’t think I’d be able to get out of alive thanks to the way it’s mixed things up.

The new trials aren’t the only way Pokemon has been mixed up. Now you can also ride Pokemon themselves on the overworld, allowing them to get you around a lot faster than running traditionally would. Getting around faster isn’t their only use though, as different pokemon’s abilities enable you to find new secret locations on the world map, giving you better TM’s or even better equipment.

Another fantastic new addition to the series is the Z ultra moves; moves so powerful they can kill most pokemon in one hit. Z moves can be given to any pokemon you have in your party as long as they’re holding a Z stone which matches the elemental type of one of their moves. Once activated, a brilliant cutscene of their attack unfolds, usually causing the opposing pokemon to faint. These powerful moves can only be used once per battle, so should you be taking on a team of opponents, it’s best not to use the move asap.

Aside from the new gameplay changes, there’s the age old tradition of New Pokemon adorning the land. These new pokemon range from trivial items in the environment like a ghost sandcastle pokemon, all the way up to new legendary’s that control the sun and moon. My favourite addition in all of this was the brand new “alolan” variants of some of the original 150 pokemon. These variants now only changed their features, like Raichu looking browner for example, but also changed their types. Exeggutor for example goes from being a grass type in previous games, to suddenly becoming a dragon type, able to learn amazing new moves like Hyper beam in the process. It’s a weird touch, but actually changes up the game quite a bit, making you excited to find/discover new pokemon and old.

Story-wise, the game is much the same as previous entries in the series. The biggest change is in the fact for the first time in Pokemon’s history, the main game has cutscenes. Yep, it’s strange at first, but you soon start to love the fact that it’s not all staticky talking characters anymore, with amazingly animated scenes lighting up your 3DS with all manners of joy. If anything, this addition makes the story all the more interesting, giving Pokemon a whole new layer to work with in producing new stories for people of all ages.

Additionally, Pokemon Moon had me surprised at the amount of mini-games available on the pause screen and how fun they were to keep coming back to. One of them, a bean collecting island, allowed you to place down berries to attract Pokemon, all whilst picking berries and planting them. I was surprised at how much fun I actually had with this mini-game, even going so far as to keep returning every now and then. This definitely contributed to my 30 hour play time total, but I felt it was worth it, especially when you can use the berries to make your pokemon love you, giving you extra headroom in fights when pokemon successfully dodge attacks for your love.

Section on Graphics:

Section on Disadvantages:

So all in all, I’m bloody glad I came back to Pokemon Moon. It’s formula may be similar to those games that came before it, but I cannot help but feel it’s a fantastic addition to the series, and sets up brand new precedent’s for future Pokemon titles, especially with the region variances in play. Should you own a 3DS (or 2DS!), you owe it to yourself to own Pokemon Moon – it’s guaranteed to give you dozens of hours of pleasure, and keep you coming back for more time and time again.

5/5

18/08/2017
Weekly Gaming: Tales from the Borderlands (Xbox One)

As some of you may be aware, I started Tales from the Borderlands just over 2 years ago when the game was first released. As a Borderlands fan, I couldn’t wait to see Telltale’s take on the series, especially given how much I loved other franchises Telltale took on. The issue is, the game completely forgot that I had completed the second chapter, meaning it had lost all of my choices and decisions. Whilst some would say “Just select the third chapter and let the game randomise it for you!”, I felt this was horrendous – the whole point of a telltale game is to see the consequences and results of your actions, something that would feel contrived and wrong should I not have made those decisions myself.

Alas, I gave up. For the last 2 years I’ve proceeded to ignore the game even existed, Let alone see it through to its conclusion.

…. Until this last weekend that is, where I was meant to finally sit down and play FFXV, but decided to play a shorter game so that I could at least finish it before the weekend was over.

Looking through my list of games that I’m still yet to play, Tales from the Borderlands stood out as a game I actually wanted to see the ending of, despite it’s bastarding ability to delete my saves. So, getting some cups of tea ready and proceeding to hanker down, I decided to complete the remaining game within one sitting. Here’s my thoughts.

As I said in previous reviews of the episodes, Telltale have done a fantastic job in the presentation department for Tales from the Borderlands. Everything is crisp and sharp, with each character looking splendid. The cel-shading looks tremendous, even going so far as to make the world look more distinctive than before, making it look weirdly realistic as opposed to cartoony.

The presentation does wonders given the events that unfold in each of the episodes, with many characters being on display at once, and even large vistas that play to the cel-shading aesthetic even more. Animations also seemed to improve throughout each episode, with the last episode even going so far as to have an all out battle between your heroes and the crazy Vault monster. All in all Tales from the Borderlands was an absolute delight to witness, so much so I cannot wait until Borderlands 3 is released on this generation of consoles.

As for the story – overall it’s mediocre at best. Set on the planet of pandora, with all of it’s weird monsters and inhabitants, your main players, Rhys and Fiona, make their way across the planet searching for money and riches beyond their wildest dreams, all whilst avoiding all the trouble they manage to make in their path. It’s a basic set up, which has some nifty turns throughout, but overall fell flat if not for being pretty inconsequential in regards to the “lore” of Borderlands (if you could say Borderlands even has lore).

Characters themselves were fantastic, and fairly fleshed out, but I couldn’t help but feel a lot of their interactions between them were contrived, much to the point as to make it a detriment to the game. For example, in Episode 3 there’s awkward scenes (at least for me), where the Telltale team push heavily for your main character Rhys, and a side kick Sasha to get together. The issue was it come out of nowhere – there was no forewarning, no way to make questions lead up to the romance options, it was instead entirely forced upon me as the player of my own story. I felt so annoyed by this direction that I even proceeded to google whether there was anyway out of this romance, thankfully to find there was in the final scene of the final chapter.

That last paragraph may have sounded a little silly considering it was merely a romance in a game, the issue is all options within the game forced the romance, even when it wasn’t what I wanted. I felt like there was no way around it, a terrible feeling when Telltale games are renowned for making YOU feel in control of the events that unfold – both good and bad.

As for the gameplay, it’s the same as every other Telltale game – you proceed to walk around areas, talking to other characters, learning as much about the world as possible. Then take part in Quick Time Events (QTE’s), followed by long dialogue scenes, all with the signature “[Name] will remember that”. It may be harsh to say, but man oh man is the same gameplay time and time again getting boring. I know Telltale are meant to be about telling intriguing, new stories in established universes, but you’d think they’d mix the formula up a bit after doing sooooo many new games.

Comedy wise, Tales from the Borderlands actually manages to impress. The characters are so brilliantly written (by themselves) that the things they do in situations feels organic and got more than its fair share of laughs and chuckles. Should the narrative between the characters have been just as funny, I may have enjoyed the overall story more.

Regardless of my criticisms, was it worth going back to the game after 2 years? Meh, not really. Whilst Tales from the Borderlands has some key story elements which will be canon come the next instalment in the next franchise, I feel I could have skipped this entirely and got the jist of things in a simple note at the beginning of Borderlands 3. Maybe I’m still bitter about the loss of my save file, resulting in me playing the same episode again for 2 hours, but overall I found Tales from the Borderlands mediocre at best. It’s a shame I’ve failed out of love with Telltale game’s recent forays into franchises: some of my best gaming moments of the last few years was thanks to their pushing of the medium forward. Alas, all good things must come to an end.

3/5

11/08/2017
Weekly Gaming: Valiant Hearts (Xbox One)

I know this first sentence is getting old, but I’ve been meaning to play Valiant Hearts for years. Something about the fact a games publisher like Ubisoft funded a studio to make a fairly indie-looking WW1 game that would include historical facts resonated with me in such a way that I was excited to get my hands on the beauty. Alas, 3 years after the game was originally released, I finally managed to sit down for one weekend and put the gorgeously hand-drawn puzzle platformer thorough it’s paces.

So what is Valiant Hearts? Put simply, Valiant Hearts is a 2D hand drawn puzzle platformer where you take control of 3 different characters all just trying to make their way through WW1, the “great” war as it were. You start each characters story at the start of the war, and proceed to find out how they became involved in the war, and how it affected them personally. Throughout the course of the campaign you’ll take part in many of the famous battles, and get to see, first hand, how the people of the time lived and coped with what was going on around them.

Whilst puzzle platformers aren’t usually my cup of tea (“The Cave” for example, was only played for half an hour and never touched again), something about Valiant Hearts managed to keep me so entranced that I wanted to see everything the game had to offer; so much so that I proceeded to spend so much time collecting every collectible hidden throughout the main campaign. This is rare for me, but understandable when you get down to the core mechanic of the game: It’s splendid art-style.

Every character in the world of Valiant hearts is lovingly detailed, with each animation happening so fluidly that you’d be forgiven at times for thinking you were watching a cartoon show. Hundreds/thousands of NPC’s you meet throughout the game are also just as detailed, and help to present how horrific WW1 was, with millions of dead bodies strewn throughout each stage as if they’re a part of the scenery.

The art style doesn’t stop at the lovingly detailed characters though – even the stages themselves are so marvellously hand drawn that you feel like you can relate to, and understand the world Ubisoft has created. Streets bristle with detail, with even woodland scenes having little quirks here and there to make them feel full of life.

It helps that whilst you’re making your way through this aesthetically pleasing world, the soundtrack helps to properly cement that you’re in the 1910’s, and as such, gives a fantastic range of music that would have been popular at the time.

So aesthetically, both in the visual and audio departments, Valiant Hearts truly stands out above the crowd when it comes to world building. But what about it’s actual gameplay?

This is where some of the issues start to crop up.

For the most part, you’ll make your way from left to right as each of your characters. You don’t control all characters at the same time, instead each stage that progresses the story has you taking control of one and one alone. Each character comes with their own abilities that are made use of in each stage: Freddie, the black American is able to set up explosives and cut down barbed wire, Emile, the French man, is able to control a dog to grab objects and can dig in specific areas, and finally Anna, the Belgian lady is a nurse and is able to heal people.

These random abilities may sound weird to have, but they help in pushing the story forward and making you get a feel for what life must have been like in those days.

Each stage will have you moving along until you encounter an obstacle in your way, at which point you’ll have to use your smarts to navigate past. Take for example the french man – in one of his stages, you need to infiltrate a german encampment, making sure the guards patrolling never see’s him. This stage makes heavy use of his digging and dog controlling mechanic, and as such, pushes you to look at every item in the environment as a potential solution to getting to your end destination.

The issue is, these puzzle usually detract from the world building itself. You’ll spend quite some time rushing back and forth, picking up items in a specific order just to solve a puzzle that could have not even been there in the first place. I wanted to play the game to learn more about WW1 and to observe the stunning attention to detail; not to retread the same steps over and over to overcome one obstacle.

There were also a few bugs on my travels; in one stage, the scripted moments never occurred, leaving my characters to just stand there forever, waiting for something to happen. Another stage, my character got stuck on box, and as such was never able to move, meaning I had to quit the game and come back in. Nuisances sure, but not exactly game breaking bugs.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing Valiant Hearts, and if anything, wished I’d had played the game sooner. The little titbits of historical facts strewn between great art and animations was a match made in heaven, and certainly made the war more relatable on an emotional and human level. I’d hugely recommend you pick the game up if it goes on sale, you won’t regret the time you invest into this gorgeous world.

4/5

04/08/2017
Weekly Gaming: Monument Valley 2 (iOS)

It’s been almost 3 years to the day since I reviewed Monument Valley; the fantastically gorgeous mobile indie game that absolutely blew me away, and made me look at mobile games in a whole new light. A year after that, I took on the game’s DLC, and found it evoking the same kind of feelings as the original, albeit at a much reduced price. This year I finally got my hands on the game’s secret sequel: Monument Valley 2.

To be honest, the announcement of the sequel was something of a surprise. There I was just watching Apple’s WWDC keynote, and suddenly, the app store section was showing Monument Valley 2. Rushing to the app store, I found it by searching, and immediately gave Apple (and the developers at ustwo games) four whole pounds and 99 pennies for the pleasure of owning this great game.

So first up, what is Monument Valley 2?

Put simply, it’s another story set in the Monument Valley universe, whereby you play as multiple characters that wish to put the world back together again using the weird special powers they have in their hats. In this sequel, you play as a mother and daughter as the mother goes about doing her job with her daughter in tow, only for the daughter to have to go off on her own and do this job herself. It’s a simple premise, with lots and lots of animated hugs at the end of each stage, but does a good job of adding some emotion to a series that only made you have feelings for inanimate totem polls.

The game comprises of the same puzzles you know and love from the original, with gorgeous aesthetics taking centre stage once again. The developers at ustwo games have taken things one step further in Monument Valley 2, with the landscapes being animated in new ways, as well as there being many FMV’s for you to watch in certain aspects of the game. These new environments, ideas and even cutscenes helps to make Monument Valley 2 one of the most visually appealing games on iOS today, so much so I’d go so far to say it’s probably more stunning then the vast majority of triple-A games too.

The one thing I did want to mention is the strangeness the game evokes from normal human emotions. Take for example the two main characters: despite being fairly abstract, we can tell that they’re a mother and daughter purely from the mannerisms their animations evoke, as well as the size difference between the two. I suppose it helps that the game animates the two of them hugging a lot, but even without the hugs the abstract art doesn’t stop you from making these associations. I don’t know where I’m going with this point, I just really wanted to point it out that it was a groovy little thing ustwo games managed to pull off.

Annoyingly, Monument Valley 2 was can easily be completed within an hour and a half. I say “annoyingly”, not because it’s bad value for money, but because of how much I wanted to continue playing the game. Maybe it’s because of how cynical I’m becoming in my old age, but I can’t help but feel this is so that they can sell us dlc at a later point…

There is one thing that has changed for the worst; the games difficulty. It seems like ustwo games decided that the actual puzzle that made players feel like a genius for solving things in the previous instalment got in the way of them showing us more gorgeous landscapes. As such, I didn’t have a single issue with Monument Valley 2’s difficulty throughout the entire campaign. Whilst this may be good for making the game more mainstream, I couldn’t help but feel let down – I loved that some levels in the previous game made me feel like an idiot until I finally had the “Aha!” moment that solved the issue in front of me. Just simply walking through a world is all fine and good, but there needs to be substance to keep players coming back.

Overall, Monument Valley 2 was a fantastic surprise. It’s more of the same, which can only be a good thing considering it’s one of the most visually stunning games on the market, and helps cement ustwo’s reputation as a fantastic little studio with plenty to give to the world in both art, and design.

4/5

28/07/2017
Weekly Gaming: Jotun (PC)

As with many of the games I review on this site, I’ve been meaning to play Jotun for a while. It always intrigued me on the Steam store, and even peaked my interest when I saw that the whole game was hand-drawn. Alas, many years after purchasing the game, I finally decided to sit down one afternoon and put the game through its paces. Join me as we investigate what kind of game Jotun is, and whether it has much past it’s hand drawn art style.

First up, lets get the basics out of the way. Jotun is a top-down action/boss-rush game where you play as Thora – a female viking tribe-leader who was sent to her grave in an undignified manner. Upon coming to the afterlife, she wants to seek vengeance on her terrible death, and vows to impress the gods enough to be let into Valhalla. To do so, she must collect old runes guarded by all manner of puzzles and creatures, and proceed to use these runes to kill Jotuns – massive giants that stand in her way of Valhalla.

Where Jotun stands out from other games in this tried and tested formula though is in those aforementioned graphics. From start to finish everything you see in Jotun is hand-drawn, with lovingly detailed environments and fluid animations all looking absolutely stellar throughout the main campaign. Jotuns animate with expressive styles, and even the environment stands out, especially when the camera pans out to show you the immense scale of the world Thora inhabits – a testament to how well the art stands up even when there’s loads of screen at once.

It should be noted though that there are a few inconsistencies when it comes to the hand drawn art-style. For the most part, everything is lovingly detailed, but occasionally, multiple frames in an enemies attack pattern will have them looking like a 5 year olds drawing. This stands out far more than it should, especially considering how detailed and flawless the rest of the art on display is.

Within the first hour of playing Jotun you’ll the core gameplay loop which you’ll need to participate in for the next 4 hours. Pop into a level (it’s up to you which ones you take on first – something I found to my detriment when getting slaughtered by overpowered foes early on), explore until you find power-ups, grab the rune, and proceed to go back to the hub world to take on the boss. It may sound repetitive, but was actually alright – should you get annoyed at a boss taking you down, just head off to another level and get more power-ups until you’re powered up enough to take them on again.

From the offset you realise how little control you actually have over Thora’s actions. Her basic attack (done by pressing X) is slow, and oh so weak. Her next attack, the strong attack, takes so long to wind up that it’s rare you’ll actually use it in a fight. Pressing B activates her powerups, and A allows Thora to do a dodge-roll (one which doesn’t make her invincible whilst rolling – like other games). For players familiar with action/boss rush games, you’ll note how limited this is, and how much of an issue it can be in later, harder battles.

Thankfully, for the most part, each stage is fairly easy to beat, with most of them simply being massive areas to explore. Without many hazards, this can get a little boring, but there’s a reason each stage is like this: to flesh out the world Thora inhabits. Each stage is varied in art style, and all centred around a different god – some even let you see mythological creatures in the distance should you explore enough. Each time a new art-style would be presented I’d be stunned at the amount of attention to detail the developers put into it – especially given the variety on display. Who’d have thought a team was capable of showing all different seasons/elements, especially with the same great hand-drawn art style and animations. It’s fantastic to say the least.

Hidden throughout each stage are powers for Thora herself. Some are simple, like an apple that extends you health meter, with others being full-on new abilities. These come in handy when taking on bosses, as Thora’s standard moves are either weak, or awfully slow. Each power earned is varied; one helps Thora’s speed, another fires an arrow, whilst another just heals her. They each serve their purpose, and in due time you’ll find you’ll rely on some powers more than others in boss fights – I know I relied far too heavily on the strength power-up, much to my own detriment when I ran out of uses for it.

Even with all of these abilities on hand, some of the later bosses can certainly be difficult. I found myself getting to the last 2 bosses within 3 hours, but still took another hour/ hour and a half to actually beat the game. This came as a surprise to me, and definitely got a bit irritating towards the end – the rest of the game was just so simple that this spike in difficultly felt unfair – a feeling you never want the player to experience when creating a game.

If has to also be said the narration deployed throughout is simply sublime. Whenever Thora describes a myth or her own history to the player, she does so in her native tongue – a fantastic design decision which makes the stories of this world feel all the more authentic.

Soundtrack wise, there isn’t much to talk about. I cannot for the life of me say I recall any of the music on offer in Jotun, and as such, can’t say you would either. The sound effects were alright, with some animals or Jotuns sounding ferocious, but overall you’re not here for the music.

Overall, I’m glad I picked Jotun up and finally gave it a go. Whilst it can be a bit inconsistent in the art department, and the difficulty can spike at one point, I thoroughly enjoyed my time overall, and would recommend anyone who likes the look of the art to give it a go; you won’t be left disappointed.

4/5

21/07/2017
Weekly Gaming: Get Even (PS4 Pro)

Hey all!

This week, I take a look at Bandai Namco’s new weird FPS horror game, Get Even. It was a strange game that tried to do too many different genres in my opinion, and never really mastered one. It’s ambitious, and genuinely worth a play, but man oh man does it not hit on any of the mars it attempts to.

You can read my (heavily edited) opinion on the game below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268505/get-even-ps4/

Until next week!

-Dan

14/07/2017
Weekly Gaming: Tekken 7 (PS4 Pro)

Hey all!

So this week, I take a look at the latest of one of my favourite game franchises of all time: Tekken. Whilst the graphics are as gorgeous as ever, I certainly missed the old arcade mode with multiple random endings. Overall, I’m glad the game exists, but it definitely feels a bit of a hollow package considering the value of previous titles in the series.

You can read my review below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268324/tekken-7-ps4/

As always, I hope you enjoy the review, and until next week, have a good one!

-Dan

07/07/2017
Weekly Gaming: Tokyo 42 (PC)

Hey all!

So this week I need to apologise: a while back I had so much work to do that I ended up reviewing Tokyo 42 for VGchartz.com, and even making a video review, but never actually linked to it. So here’s my blog post about the game! (finally!). Overall, I enjoyed Tokyo 42 quite a bit, the soundtrack rubbed me up the wrong way, but from start to finish I genuinely enjoyed the aesthetic and great gameplay. Shame it gets hard towards the end, but that may have been my own incompetence rather than the game itself.

You can read my full review below, and watch my video review at the top of this page!

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268196/tokyo-42-pc/

As always, thank you for your continued support! ‘Til next time!

-Dan

30/06/2017
Weekly Gaming: Virginia (PS4)

Virginia (PS4)

Those of you who’ve been reading this website for a while may know how much I adored Thirty Flights of Loving; the extremely short indie game that showed you can evoke drama, emotion and story from any game, even if it has no voice acting or dialogue.

Virginia is one such game that was also heavily inspried by those weird and wonderful experiments all those years ago. Set in the town of Kingdom, Viriginia, you play as Anne Tarver, an FBI Special agent which is assigned a partner who is already working on a case of a missing teenager called Lucas.

Throughout the course of the campaign you’ll be given control of Anne as you make your way from one location to another, seeing what unfolds before you. Since there’s no dialogue, it’s up to you to determine the intention of what is happening in each scene, making the story confusing, but extremely intriguing and engrossing. This constant guessing kept me on my toes throughout Virginia’s two hour playtime, so much so that even know, I’m guessing my interpretation of the story may actually be different than the developers originally intended.

It has to be said, but the way in which your character is teleported throughout the world is genuinely stunning. Holding a piece of paper and examining it one moment in the office you’ll find the next you’re looking at the same page whilst now in a car to your next destination. The Scene transitions are sublime, so much so that at times you never notice.

If anything, the abruptness to which you’re thrown around the story adds to it’s appeal. Tension and intrigue would be lost in making the player walk from point A to point B, so to speed it all up and getting rid of the mundane, Variable State have managed to make a refined and dramatic experience, one that keeps your entranced from the moment it begins to the end.

To coincide with the amazing jumpcuts throughout, Variable State have managed to employ an absolutely amazing soundtrack, one which is so great that I’m listening to it now as I write this very review. It’s genuinely has the production values and acoustics of a Hollywood film, and is so integral to the story that the storybeats happen just as the music drops a beat, resulting in euphoric moments that push you to get more involved with the weird and wonderful world. Seriously, give the soundtrack a listen whilst you read the rest of my review; you will not be disappointed:

Story-wise, Virginia is a mixed bag. Whilst my interpretation of the story may be wrong, and I enjoy that you have to interpret it in your own way, the constant shifting of scope can also be seen as a bad thing. Unlike Thirty Flights of Loving, where there was some ambiguity, but for the most part you could figure out what was happening, Virginia goes the opposite direction, and proceeds to make the main story so ambiguous that entire threads were created just to discuss what had actually happened.

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As an actual game, Virginia could actually be considered a “Walking Simulator”. Whilst some may consider that a detriment, I find it endearing, as all I wanted was to experience the story and little more. There are opportunities to walk about in some sections of the game, but due to the simplistic graphic employed throughout, I found no reason too. I mean, what’s the point in walking over to a desk full of books when there’s no actual writing on the books themselves – they’re merely a prop to the environment, and little more.

Don’t take my “Simplistic Graphics” comment to mean that Virginia has bad graphics. Far from it. In fact, there are many times where the minimalist aesthetics work to its advantage, giving some spectacular scenes where I couldn’t press the screenshot button fast enough to show how beautiful the game is. Each character is suitably animated, to the point you can properly detect what emotion they’re meant to be portraying at that moment in time. The animations were so great and fluid that they actually helped to make the characters and world as a whole feel all the more believable, despite the minimalistic graphics seen.

Virginia is, if anything, a testament to what can be done in the “Walking Simulator” genre. Given enough time, and talent, these games are able to make an audience feel, and think, so much more than a typical medium like Television. The fact that you’re actively engaging with the world and pushing the story along helps make you more aware of every little detail, stopping you from zoning out and missing elements of the story. I managed to pick the game up in the Sony sale, and for £3.49, you really cannot go wrong. If you like mysterious games with pleasing graphics, give Virginia a go; you won’t be disappointed.

4/5

23/06/2017