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Weekly Gaming: Costume Quest 2 (Xbox One)

It’s been many years since I sat down and had a bloody good time with Costume Quest. This charming, weird game was something of a mystery to me, with the only things being heard about the game being good words by Giant Bomb and other outlets on it’s great theme. So, 6 lovely hours later after completing the main campaign, I came away impressed, and excited for a sequel (should one ever be made).

Alas, not all wishes should come true, and I for one am sad that I just sat through a sequel which has tarnished my memories of a truly great and charming game.

Not that Costume Quest 2 starts off bad; if anything it starts off no different to Costume Quest 1, and in fact is a direct sequel, with the whacky group you controlled in the first place finding themselves between worlds, trying to find their way home. Starting the game proper, you find yourselves in your old town, but with the main antagonist of the game scheming as always. Upon Mr Orel White coming back from a portal, you notice he has a talisman, one which opens portals to the demon realm, and which allows you to control all manner of creatures that come out.

Wanting to stop Dr White before this all happens, your group proceeds to travel back in time, but not before two of them stay behind to help you out from across time. In this starting area, you encounter a new random child, that proceeds to be your third party member (for no other reason than you asked him where something was). using these three characters, you then proceed to battle bad time people int he same manner of the previous game: by transforming into your costumes.

This was already where one of my first issues arose: unlike Costume Quest 1, which had great costumes/transformations, costume quest 2 seems to have given up on truly original and innovative transformations. You start off with a Candy corn and superhero, both of which look bland and normal, with the rest of the costumes gained throughout the game being no more inventive or creative as the first. It’s a shame, as getting new costumes was easily one of my favourite things of the first game – not only seeing how awesome the costume looked in fights, but also the awesome moves and special attacks that I’d get to see unfold as fights proceeded.

Whilst the fights themselves are as easy and as serviceable as the first, you can’t say the team have rested on their laurels. Your characters are now able to double attack, parry and defend (if I recall correctly, you could only do the latter in the first game), meaning each fight requires your full attention to everything happening on screen, as well as ensuring you have some timing skills.

The fights also (maybe I’m mis-remembering once again) introduce a new stat in play – stat boosts and detriments based on the costumes you choose, and the enemies you’re attacking. This can come with some pros in that you deal a lot more damage to some enemies, but definitely some cons also – especially when there’s no discernible way to tell enemy types apart other than actually attacking them. Even when you do learn the different enemies, there’s no guarantee that the costumes you pick beforehand will be in anyway effective for them, since each enemy encounter is random. It’s irritating that whilst the developers have tried to add more depth to the combat, they’ve simultaneously taken way the ability to choose your moves/specials, which in doing so left you feeling frustrated that you can’t prepare effectively.

What I’ve said so far may not sound great, but also may not sound bad either, I cannot for the life of me forgive the lack of coherent story, and shitty characters Costume Quest 2 manages to create. The first Costume quest was a barrel of laughs, with kids taking on adults and monsters as equals, with a lot of funny text and situations making for an extremely entertaining time. Costume Quest 2 tries to start off this way, but soon trips over when you find there’s no story telling for hours on end, with much of the game being endless candy hunting and random battles. What little narrative there is isn’t funny, and even exists to justify (badly I might add) why you’re going to a new locale.

I think that’s what irritates me most about Costume Quest 2: the story does not do a good enough job of being light-hearted or even justifying why a specific location looks the way it does. Take for example the future, where Dr Orel White manages to take over the world – children are banned from eating sweets or trick-or-treeting – a terrible fate for all involved. But for some reason, Dr Orel White appears to be a genius that is able to create robotics and hovering cars – something which has no bearing what-so-ever on the fact he took a talisman which enabled demons to come through.

I could go into detail about why each of the characters are also annoying, with the third party member disappearing every 2 minutes to be replaced by another, but doing so would make me even more annoyed, due to it’s wasted opportunity to flesh out the world and the characters within. Or even the fact that the end scene has no way out other than to quit the game. It’s insane.

It’s just a shame that Costume Quest 2 exists at all. It appears as though it may have been a cash-grab, one that ran out of money before it was forced out, causing a random story and not great gameplay mechanics. As someone that loved the original, and couldn’t wake for a sequel, I’m hugely disappointed I saw this game through to the end and feel like I’ve waster 7 hours of my life. Don’t wish for sequels, you’ll almost always get hurt.

2/5

01/12/2017
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: Late Shift (Xbox One)

Hey all!

For this week, I’m posting the review I done this week for VGChartz.com on a “game” called Late Shift. It’s a film game where the footage gets you to make decisions on the direction of the plot, a nice and novel approach that worked fairly well.

You can read the full review at VGChartz.com below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267930/late-shift-xone/

I hope you enjoy the article, and have a great weekend!

-Dan

21/04/2017
Weekly Gaming: Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One)

Whilst it may have been released many eons ago, I have fond memories of the original Star Wars Battlefront for the original Xbox. Not when it was released mind you, no no no, years later when I was at university in 2007 is where most of my memories come from. A close friend had the game, and with university being the time where you laze around a lot I visited his house often to play epic multiplayer games against each other, especially with bots on. Whilst I loved these hectic nights, I never personally bought the game, mainly because I didn’t have a need to and moved on to other games once I finally got Xbox Live.

Fast forward to 2017, and with a new Xbox One S in my possession which came with a free 30 day trial to EA Access, I decided to plunge head first into the game which shaped the multiplayer experience of fall 2015.

Starting out I had an idea what I was in for, but decided to start with the training missions anyway. These missions take you through what each multiplayer stage will encounter, from kill all the enemies to capturing all the objectives, and were a good introduction to the series. Vehicle controls were examined, with all the extra controls available such as third person camera angles properly trained on. Having played through all they had to offer, as well as 3 starring a lot of them, I was properly primed and ready to get online to face the countless other players enacting their Star Wars fantasies.

Holy shit is it a joy to get online and take part in epic battles. After a long-ass loading screen (more on that later), you’re dropped right into a fight that lasts the best part of 20 minutes to half an hour, without ever encountering a dull moment. Tie fighters, AT-AT’s and all manner of Star Wars characters are constantly around you, generating massive explosions, unique firefights and all manner of spectacle as you proceed to try and win each different objective for your team. It’s exhilarating and down right fun each and every time you join a match, no matter which game mode you join.

Take for example the walker run, whereby a AT-AT is walking across to a rebel base to kill their escape vehicles. You would think this would be quite boring, but it’s far from it. As the Rebels you’re continuously calling in Y-wing strikes on the walker, protecting your communications array so that targeting systems can home in, all whilst the empire troops are preventing you from doing so. No matter which side you’re on, rebels or empire, you’re bound to have fun, and are constantly charging into action to ensure your side wins.

Throughout each game mode you’ll find random powers across the field which’ll either change the tide of the battle or make no difference what-so-ever. Some may be extra weapons you can deploy mid-game, for example a rocket launcher or even a turret, which are all useful should you use them at the correct time. Others could be more essential to the battle, for example should you be on the Empire’s side, you could get an AT-ST, a powerful vehicle which can easily take out dozens of foes before being felled. Then there’s the vehicles, like a famous Tie fighter or even an X-Wing, both of which can deal devastating damage to ground troops and vehicles alike when in the right hands.

One of the most powerful power-ups though is the Hero pickup – an ability which allows you to choose from a set of heroes (related to your current team) and play them on the field. These epic characters will be familiar to fans of the Star Wars universe, and are extremely powerful should they be used correctly. For example, during any matches I would get the pickup, I’d choose to be princess Leia, a fantastic support character that can deploy shields at will, and that boosts the strength of all allies firepower should you kill enough enemies. That was just my personal preference; in my time on the battlefield I saw just as many competent Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker players that were able to wipe the floor with everyone as I saw good boba felt players.

One things for certain with Battlefront: no matter which game mode you get put into, you’re bound to have a fun time with epic moments throughout. The amount of times I’d see a tie fighter crash into the ground, narrowly missing a teammate was astounding, even more so when you think about the size of the levels. Something is always happening, and I for one loved almost every moment that I was in the game.

I say “almost” every moment, because there were plenty of times when the game genuinely infuriated me. The aforementioned loading screens were one such annoyance, as they last so damn long. For some of the single player challenges I’d load a level up at 11pm, only to still find myself waiting for the same level 5 minutes later after making a tea. This waiting also happens should you restart a level, meaning should you fail a challenge you’ll need to watch the loading screen once again.

The game also has quite a few bugs still, with myself getting stuck in the level’s geometry multiple times, or even being thrown out of matches randomly. These issues aren’t as prevalent as the loading, but certainly detract from the fun you’re having whilst playing a level. I suppose what’s more shocking is that after almost 18 months since it’s initial release, and with 5 dlc packs being released, the developers at DICE still haven’t fixed these issues.

Minor issues aside, Star Wars: Battlefront is one hell of a game. I loved getting home from work each night, sitting down, and just proceeding to take part in epic battles across the Star Wars universe. Even though I didn’t play with friends, I never felt the game had any repercussions as a consequence, meaning even when finishing one match, I was looking forward to the next. The endless loop is intoxicating, so much so that I’m tempted to pay for a year of EA Access just to jump straight back in. If you’re a fan of multiplayer games, and generally like the Star Wars brand, you owe it to yourself to buy Star Wars: Battlefront.

4/5

31/03/2017
Weekly Gaming: Halo Wars 2 (Xbox One)

Hey all!

This week was going to be a review on Lego Jurassic World BUTTTTT I managed to get a review copy of Halo Wars 2, so proceeded to review it ASAP for VGChartz.com.

Soooooooo you can read my thoughts on the latest console RTS at the link below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267440/halo-wars-2-xone/

Hope you enjoy the review and it either tides you over into buying the game, or putting you off it. Regardless of how you feel, I hope it helps you make a good purchasing decision.

Until next week!

-Dan

17/02/2017
Weekly Gaming: Mirrors Edge Catalyst (Xbox One)

Mirrors Edge was a strange old bird. Released at the height of EA’s attempt to get on gamers side, it received mediocre reviews but managed to spawn a cult following, given it’s uniqueness and style. critics across the world moaned about it’s linear story, and that the core mechanics got old fairly quick.

Fast forward 8 years and here we have another Mirrors Edge, albeit this time we’re taking control of Faith in the past, before the events of the first game. Considering how the first game ends, it’s no surprise, but does a more advanced, mature Mirrors Edge fix the flaws of the first game? Unfortunately not.

Now, I’m not saying Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is a bad game, not by any stretch of the imagination. As I’m going to explain, the game does a lot of things right, so much so that I ended up putting in over 15 hours into the game whilst completing all side content. It’s just that in trying to fix the issues of it’s predecessor, Mirrors Edge Catalyst introduces some new issues into the formula, which results in another mediocre outing, which is neither fantastic, nor bad.

Story wise, it was always going to be difficult to make a prequel to a cult favourite, but EA Dice have actually managed to make an ok prequel. Characters motivations are laid bare, giving you an in-depth look into what life in this weird and wonderful world must be like, whilst story moments are immersive enough to make you want to see things through to their logical conclusions. There are some annoying tropes, with the drama at time a little too over the top, but overall I commend EA Dice on managing to make some believable moments, something I didn’t think could be done.

Graphically, Mirrors Edge catalyst is all over the place. I played the game on XBOX one, and could not stop noticing how blurry the image quality was at all times. I believe the game’s downscaling to 720p or even lower at times, resulting in a negative experience when you’re meant to be taking in the city and all it’s splendour at multiple times throughout the campaign. Graphical quality aside, the aesthetics of the world are sublime at times, giving a real sense of deja-vu when running through splendid prestige houses that I genuinely wish I could live in. It’s just a shame that the blurriness detracts so much, Mirrors Edge Catalyst has a lovely world to explore.

Did I say exploration? Yep, one of the major gripes from Mirrors Edge has been solved here, with Faith being able to explore an open world from on the rooftops. Whilst there’s a guide to help you get from point A to point B, you can proceed to explore these rooftops until your heart’s content, although EA Dice have unfortunately locked large swaths of land to explore behind story-lockable content (e.g. New abilities allowing you to reach previously unreachable locations).

Where this open-world falls apart is in it’s structures causing issues with your mobility. There were many occasions throughout my time with the game that I’d fall from a piece of geometry that I could have sworn I was on, or landed a jump that was apparently too high, making me respawn in another location. Being able to freely explore the world could have been bliss, but the way it irritates the control scheme, or causes you to a fail state multiple times really drives the point home that the control scheme can (and will) be buggy.

Side-quests and collectibles can be found whilst exploring the open world, but other than an xp bonus, there’s no real reason to actually collect or do any of them. The only reason I did was because I’m a whore for collectibles. Give me any game that puts a carrot on the stick in the form of a maximum number of items to collect, and I’ll be hunting until the end of days – an annoying habit I have, especially given how little free time I have to myself as of late.

Combat too is just as irritating as ever. Even more so since Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst does away with the ability to pick up guns of any sort. The story explains this away in a cutscene, showing that Faith is afraid of guns after having killed a man when she was a little girl, but never actually says this in anyway during the tutorials or text throughout. This means that should you happen across a bunch of guards, you’ll either need to run away, or stick around and take them all on, one by one. Fully upgrade Faiths abilities and this will eventually become trivial, but it’s still annoying that we have to do this, especially when Mirrors Edge gave us the choice to pick up an enemies weapon and use it against them if we were ever in a pickle (for example when you’re in the subway waiting for the train and holding off waves of enemies). As such, every time enemies would appear it’d be extremely tedious and irritating, something you never want when trying to evoke a feeling of immersion as you jump around.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Mirrors Edge: Catalyst. As I’ve said throughout this review, whilst some issues with the original have been solved, others have been introduced, making for a game that doesn’t get hype, but doesn’t get many criticisms either. It’s telling really that many reviewers never even thought about Catalyst when discussing last years GOTY awards; a perfect analogy, if any, to Catalyst’s mediocre showing.

3/5

10/02/2017
Weekly Gaming: Dead Rising 4 (Xbox One)

Hi all!

I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, and are looking forward to an amazing New Year! My GOTY articles will be published tomorrow, with my New Years Resolution article published New Years day.

Regardless of that, time for review number 52/52! So to read my thoughts on Dead Rising 4, click the link below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/266706/dead-rising-4-xbox-one/

Overall it was an OK game, but not by any means is it a Dead Rising game. I think Brad Shoemaker said it best in Giant Bomb’s weekly podcast: “It’s a generic RPG”.

Regardless of how good or bad Dead Rising 4 is, I thank you for visiting this blog to read my thoughts, and thank you for a weird, if not wonderful 2016.

I look forward to seeing you again next week!

-Dan

30/12/2016
Weekly Gaming: Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom (Xbox One)

Hi all,

For this weeks Weekly Gaming I take a look at Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom, published by Koei Tecmo and developed by Omega Force. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and whilst the lack of any new story was a bit of a downer, the game in it’s entirety felt like a refreshing take on the Attack on Titan universe. The combat was also great, which was surprising, especially since the simple mechanics (in previews) looked like it may have been the biggest flop.

You can read my full review over at VGchartz.com below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/265619/attack-on-titan-wings-of-freedom-xbox-one/

As always, thanks for visiting, and I’ll see you next week!

-Dan

16/12/2016
Weekly Gaming: Tembo The Badass Elephant (Xbox One)

I know I know, it’s weird hearing that Game Freak made a game that isn’t Pokemon, but here we are with Tembo The Badass Elephant. After having just spent 6 and a half hours 100% the game, I have to say, what a weird confusing experience it’s been. If this review seems a bit all over the place, then I apologise, but Tembo The Badass Elephant has unfortunately frazzled my brain.

The game starts out easy enough, with the graphics being somewhat charming, and with the story being funny and nowhere near serious in any way. A group called “phantom” has invaded a peanut shaped land, and is holding all civilians hostage. The lands general, in need or urgent help against these bad people, calls in someone he used to work with whilst he was in the jungle.

In comes Tembo, and with this huge elephant, a whole new way of playing platformer games. Due to Tembo’s size the platforming mechanics have had to be reworked. You don’t need to worry about many walls or enemies, as Tembo will just triple through them with relative ease. So with the core mechanics changing in this way, how does Game Freak manage to make a challenging and compelling game? Through variety and collecting.

Whilst core enemies are of no concern, Game Freak have made a variety of different enemy types, all of which are easy to deal with A mano a mano, but the second these enemies start grouping together you’ve got a fight on your hands. Take for example the flamethrower grunt; his attack is straightforward and easy to see through: simply wait for him to recharge his flame, and rush into him. Seems simple enough, but when you start putting this very same flamethrower man alongside robots that glide, and bomb throwing grunts, you start having a very challenging time.

That’s not to say Tembo isn’t without his own array of arsenal. Using his hulking size, you’re able to sprint through enemies, slide, uppercut and finally spin dash at them (the last move is similar to sonic; jump and press x to lunge towards enemies as a ball). These attacks are all the arsenal you’ll need against both terrain and enemies, but use them wisely: i found myself dying far too many times because I was trigger happy and would press the X button before touching the ground, leading me to spin to my death.

Along with Tembo’s abilities for movement is his ability to use water from his trunk to put out fires. Whilst this mechanic is shown off at the start of the game as a brilliant way to differentiate it from other platformers, I found it was rarely needed throughout the campaigns 17 levels. Wherever there was fire, there was a way round it.

The collecting part of Tembo is what got me so hooked on the game, and kept me coming back to levels time and time again. There’s two collectibles on each stage: 10 civilians to collect, and kill every enemy within a stage. The two kind of go hand in hand; each time you collect a civilian, you’ll have 10 phantom points added to the total number of enemies you’ve killed, meaning you’ll need to get everything a level has to offer if you want to get all the medals.

There are boss fights throughout, and I found them actually rather challenging compared to most levels. Sure, the first boss fight can be done easily, but every subsequent one took me at least half an hour; a brilliant sign of their difficulty in putting your knowledge on how to control Tembo to the test. I found the final boss especially frustrating, mainly due to the lack of checkpoints throughout his many stages; a true testament to testing the abilities you’ve mastered.

The stages were aesthetically pleasing for the most part, but ignorable all the same; for the vast majority of the game you don’t really notice what colour the ground is, or whether you’re in a city or forest; all that matters is killing every enemy, and charging through, making sure to look out for breakable walls or collectible civilians.

If there was any gripes I could have about the game, it would be in how temperamental the controls were; the spinning dash sonic move could just have easily have been remapped to the Y or B button to make sure players didn’t accidentally press it whilst in a pickle (Like I did far too often).

With the game currently on sale as I write this, is Tembo the Badass Elephant as Badass as Game Freak like to think? Yes, albeit be prepared to get frustrated throughout, as you’re in for a challenging difficulty curve throughout the game’s 6 hour campaign. Platforming fans who enjoy collecting should really enjoy Tembo, but if you’re put off by collecting and don’t like fickle controls, it might be worth looking elsewhere.

4/5

13/05/2016
Weekly Gaming: Teslagrad

I’m genuinely surprised that in all my years of gaming, I hadn’t played Teslagrad sooner. It’s charming graphics and genuinely fantastic puzzle mechanics are exactly what I look for in indie games, and Teslagrad does not disappoint. And yet, here I am, 3 years after it’s original release date stiill having not played it. So what gives? Well until the game was being re-released on Xbox One and a professional contact offered me a review copy, I jumped at the chance to give the game a go (only just realising that I also own the game on PS3 and PC already). So what does this 3 year old indie game offer that keeps it so intriguing and fantastically charming in the modern age of the indie revolution? to put it simply: everything.

The first thing that draws your attention about Teslagrad is its aesthetics. The simple, fantastically animated hand drawn models are an absolute slender to behold throughout your entire play-through of the game. I found myself often standing and admiring the animation that was unfolding before me, especially in the final fight scene, where the evil king of the world’s animation is absolutely sublime, leading myself to many unwanted deaths due to the eye candy on display.

You’ll start the game off by abandoning your mother as a large group of soviet looking men invade your home town. Making your way past these evil men, you happen across an abandoned castle, where the game starts proper. You’ll get tidbits of story throughout the campaign, told through puppetshows on a theatre stage, but there’s no text and no speech, meaning there’s some room for imagination as to what happens in the world. This may seem a little light, but that’s the case with Teslagrad, as it’s mostly the gamplay that will keep players interested throughout the campaign.

And my god does the gameplay deliver! This hybrid puzzle/adventure platformer does a fantastic job of making the player feel frustrated at times, but oh so brilliant when a puzzle or difficult section is overcome. The amount of times I would spend 10-15 minutes stuck on one section were insane, but I never felt worse of for it. The puzzles are addictively tantalising enough that you want to pick the controller up and play again, regardless of how difficult the puzzle may be. No matter how many times Teslagrad punches you to the floor, you’re bound to get back up again just to show it who’s boss.

The puzzles revolve around electromagnetism, with red and blue different types of magnetism adjourning many different rooms. Just like real electromagnetism, should an items “colour” be the same as another, it’ll be repelled. Have the opposite colour/charge, and the item will attract. It’s simple in theory, but can make for some extremely complicated puzzles, as well as some frustrating platforming sections, especially later on once you start getting new power ups which revolve more around your own reflexes than puzzles.

The abandoned castle holds many secrets, and like any true metroidvania game, many collectibles that are hidden behind tantalisingly easy puzzles that can only be recovered once you have the necessary power-up. Whilst other metroidvania games can feel obtuse and annoying when they do this, Teslagrad instead feels rewarding in doing so, ensuring you’re constantly wondering what awesome power lays before you to enable such an impossible jump.

Upon your travels through the tight corridors of the castle you’ll also encounter boss fights. In these fights you’ll need to watch the attack patterns of the bosses and attack when needed. Sounds simple in theory, but I lost far more lives than I would like to mention whilst taking them on, with one boss even requiring me to look up a video guide on how to defeat it (it’s the eye boss if you were wondering).

but for all the good I’ve said, there are some drawbacks. The music for example can have some absolutely lovely moments, but for the most part it takes a back seat, and is far too subtle to even notice there’s music playing at all throughout the main game. Another annoyance was the somewhat annoying collision bugs that sometimes manifested throughout the campaign. These would happen when an obstacle was moved, but should you go back to the original location of it, your character will push against an invisible wall.

Whilst the story never truly ends with a proper crecesendo, it was a fantastic adventure, one I’m annoyed at myself for never playing sooner. The little nuisances I just listed were no where near enough to detract from the overall feel of the game, with everything else about Teslagrad being a stand out achievement of what most indie games should aspire to be. Aesthetics, polish, puzzles and action are just some of the wonders Teslagrad brought to the table, and three years on, they’re just a good as ever.

4/5

09/03/2016
Weekly Gaming: Pneuma: Breath of Life (Xbox One)

I’m not going to lie; I only happened across Pneuma: Breath of Life because I was worried I wouldn’t finish a game this week and needed a quick and easy game to complete. Checking through game times on HowLongToBeat.com whilst also using my xbox One, I finally happened across Pneuma, and being as I needed to complete a game desperately, I decided to give it a go.

The first thing that grabbed my attention (for the worst may I add) was the annoying voiceover that seemed, if anything, detrimental to the game and experience I was having as a whole. I understood why it was there (to give a familiar voice and person to attach to whilst exploring a desolate world), but otherwise, his voice was annoying and his questions were far too philosophical for my liking.

Move past the annoying voice in your head and you soon experience a breath-taking visual affair with the game. Tiles reflect realistically as you make your way around what appears to be an old museum (which has manifested before your very eyes), with every detail, from the wooden bookcases to the golden arches all being stunningly rendered in real-time. I find it insane that a small indie studio made this game, as it genuinely looks like something a AAA studio would create with thousands of pounds and hundreds of artists.

Beyond all that beauty, there is a game to behold, with puzzles being thrown at you with every new room you enter. Whilst some of the puzzles centre around pulling levers to move objects in the world, the vast majority of them involve observation; where you must observe certain objects in the world in order to progress. For example; one room may contain bridge that isn’t in the correct location. Should you look at it and move left, it’ll move left with you, but only when you focus on it.

It’s also through this observation mechanic that the game narrates itself, saying that if one can perceive themselves and only themselves, are they truly alive, or a figment of ones imagination? It’s questions like this that constantly get asked throughout the entire games 2 hour play length, and whilst none of the questions are ever answered, they still leave a good imprint on you once finished.

A fantastic example the questions leaving an imprint was just towards the end of the game, when the narrator you’re controlling finally realises he’s being controlled by you and that he isn’t in control of his own destiny. In this instance, the narrator starts trying to “tug” away from your onward journey towards the games end; a fantastic scene that truly broke the fourth wall and made me partially believe I really was controlling someone against their will.

For all my talk of how annoying the voiceover was in the first half of Pneuma, I genuinely started liking him towards the end. Partially probably because he started talking less often, but also because he stopped being so quirky, stupid, and random and actually started sounding like a proper human being.

The same progression of character cannot be said for the puzzles themselves throughout Pneuma. Whilst they start off difficult in the early sections due to the new mechanic of observing eyes throughout the environment, they soon start becoming repetitive and easy later on, to the point that every new puzzle you come across you merely know to look at it in a new way and it’ll fix itself eventually. It’s a shame the puzzle elements fizzled out, but I suppose you can’t expect the developers to have perfect puzzles throughout with the same limited pallet of puzzle pieces.

Considering the game was only 2 hours long and was fairly enjoyable, I found myself surprised I hadn’t played Pneuma earlier. The game was free on Xbox Live Games with Gold a while back, and whilst I only played it because I was in a hurry and knew it was fast to complete, I still came back to it after seeing the credits, just to make sure I found everything Pneuma had to offer. Should you have Pneuma in your library, I’d hugely recommend investing those few hours into it; you’ll be left impressed, and at the minimum, would have at least enjoyed what you saw.

4/5

p.s. I apologise, but this week I was going to do a video review of Pneuma as well. Unfortunately, my video capture card decided to only capture the second half of my play through, so I don’t have enough footage.

05/02/2016
Weekly Gaming: Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One)

Hi all,

For this weeks review I have something more special: my first ever video review! Whilst I was excited for Halo 5 anyway, to have been given a review copy weeks ahead of launch was a god send, and one which enabled me to make my first ever video review with plenty of time before launch.

So please, give the video a watch below:

And if you want to read more than what the review had to say, you can read it below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/261687/halo-5-guardians-xbox-one/

As always, thank you for visiting, hope you have a fantastic week!

-Dan

30/10/2015
Weekly Gaming: Rare Replay (Xbox One)

Hi all!

So this week, I managed to get a copy of the recently released Rare Replay for Xbox One! The collection was definitely one of the best I’ve ever played, with a fantastic meta-game placed over the top. If you wanna give my review a read, you know what to do!

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/260438/rare-replay-xbox-one/

As always, thanks for your continued support!

-Dan

25/09/2015
Weekly Gaming: Beyond Eyes (Xbox One)

Hi all!

So this week I went out of my way and decided to buy the game I raved about when I first set my eyes on it back in March, Beyond Eyes! The game was unfortunately a big disappointment, but if you want to read my thoughts on the game, click below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/260380/beyond-eyes-xbox-one/

Hope you’re all well!

-Dan

11/09/2015
Weekly Gaming: Tachyon Project (Xbone) Review

Hey all,

Hope everyone’s well! Last week I was at Develop conference, so please by all means check out my articles over at VGChartz.com!

Regardless, this week I look at Tachyon Project, a game by Eclipse Studios. I enjoyed it, and found it a love letter to Geometry Wars:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/259958/tachyon-project-xbox-one/

As always, thanks for visiting, and thanks for all your support 🙂

-Dan

24/07/2015