1979 Revolution: Black Friday- Review

1979 Revolution: Black Friday was originally released on PC in 2016 and has now made its way over to console. The game caught my eye mainly due to the historical factors associated with the game, I love my history and having the chance to learn more is always an opportunity that I jump at.

In the game you play photo journalist Reza Shriazi, who has just come back to Iran from a trip abroad. When he returns he finds people demonstrating in the streets against The Shah. The camera he has with him will be key to the game. Taking pictures of the events that unfold around you will shape the game and show how an important historical event happened.



The first thing that I will say about the game is how well the story telling for the game has been done. The tense moments within the game drag you in, the emotional will have you feeling for the characters and bring a sense of what it would have been like to live in that that time while the revolution was going on.

There was one moment that was quite eye opening, and it’s when you head back to the Reza’s family home and you explore around, you come across some home videos that have been left and they show how life was before the revolution, how beautiful the country was, how happy the people were. The country was so different before the revolution happened and these document that fantastically, it also shows a different side to things and brings into play the larger scale of what was currently happening in the game. A wonderful, yet daunting contrast.



In terms of how the game is visually, it isn’t the best looking game, and it isn’t the worst, it’s quite an artistic way and visually manages to catch the city of Tehran wonderfully. The audio within the game has also been brilliantly done and some of the sounds were strong and quite powerful.

Gameplay wise the game plays out pretty much like a Telltale game, you have options to select from with dialect which will affect how the rest of the story will play out, and there are also actions that you have to do within the game, such as timed presses of buttons or a directional movement of the thumbstick. In a way the gameplay doesn’t bring anything new to the table and it’s more of a tried and test model that they went for when developing the game. Which I have to be honest about, I think the more important thing here for the developers is that the story is what people concentrate on.



Overall the game is a powerful one, from a story and historical standpoint 1979 Revolution: Black Friday will have you emotionally invested in the characters right throughout, from a technical aspect it is pretty much more of the same, and the developers have clearly gone for a tried and tested model to help bring their story to life.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset Isle Review

[Updated with Summerset Isle Review - 03/08/18]

I have played the Elder Scrolls Online quite extensively since its launch, not so much recently but when Summerset Isle was announced, it peaked my interest a little bit. From what we were shown the upcoming addition looked absolutely stunning and I knew that it would be something to get my teeth into.

Having played through the quests, after having to get reacquainted with my character, I felt that the Summerset Isle story was good, it kind of reminded me of Queen Ayren’s storyline a bit, it had that similar type of quest to it.



One thing that did annoy me was the too-ing and fro-ing with the quests. You were constantly having to head back to Artaeum to get the next quest, which if I’m honest became a bit annoying. There didn’t seem to be any flow to the story and it felt a little stop start for me, I understand that the story allows you to travel and get to see more of the new island to unlock new areas and way shrines etc, but when it’s going to one place, and back, to another place and back, it gets a little annoying. I had hoped that the story would have been freer flowing and allowed me to go to other locations more fluidly than having to return to Artaeum after every quest.

Another thing that slightly bothered me was that when I entered one of the cities (I can't remember it's name) the graphics for the buildings and other items wouldn't pop in. Some of the design wouldn't show properly (as seen in the below screenshot) and it left what would have been a beautiful location looking washed out. This also hindered us in one of the quests where you have to find Raz um Dar by the etchings on the wall, well, because the layers hadn't popped in, the graphic for the etchings didn't so we couldn't tell where we were going. After much looking, we did manage to find him. Hopefully this was just a server issue as I haven't been back to the location since it happened.



Summerset isle is an absolutely gorgeous place, its style reminded me of Auridon with all the greenery and trees, and it kind of had a similar sort of landscape. I found that I was taking quite a few screenshots of some wonderful views while I was playing. Sometimes stopping in my tracks while heading to a quest just so I can get the perfect shot.

There is loads for you to do in Summerset Isle, along with the main quest line which took me around 8-10 hours to complete there are plenty of side quests available for you to find within the area. I haven’t managed to do many of them, but there are enough there to keep you busy. Also, if you’re willing to test yourself out, there are delves and groups dungeons available for you to attempt, and I have to admit that I haven’t attempted the group dungeon yet, mainly because there is only me and my wife playing together and it is definitely something that you’re going to need a full 4 people for.



We’ve completed the delves within the world, a lot of the time doing them in passing while on the way to a quest. This is kind of a theme of things with this game, there seems to be a lot of things that you sort of get side tracked by, or go after while on the way to the quest… Well me and my wife did anyway as we had the idea of ‘Well, were here now, we might as well go for it.’
Summerset Isle is a perfect addition to the game, the new area is massive in size and a lot bigger than the Morrowind update that we received last year. There is plenty for you to do and see in what is an absolutely gorgeous world. I can’t wait to see what Bethesda has in store next for Elder Scrolls online and whether any other new areas will be coming to the game.

If you’re a fan of Elder Scrolls Online then I can’t recommend this highly enough to enhance your ESO experience.

The Elder Scrolls Online has recently become available on Xbox Games Pass, so if you haven't played the game before, now is a good time to check it out if you have a subscription.

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This is a game that has been on my radar since it was released, however when it was announced I had no intention of buying it due to the subscription that was required. Don't get me wrong it wasn't because of the subscription, but mainly because I couldn't afford to pay that amount of money out each month, and I don't think that I was the only one. However, I was drawn back to the game when they announced that they were no longer going to be doing the subscriptions and it would be a simple 'Buy the Disk and play the game' model... With your standard Micro transactions. Again, I don't think I was the only one who changed their mind when this was announced.

One of the many things I love about this game, is after doing the initial prologue etc you are free to go where ever you want, you can roam the lands to your hearts content, although if you're just starting out I suggest doing missions and levelling your character up, stick to a region and do the missions there first before venturing to other areas. Because there is a very good chance you will cross the border into another area and find yourself as a level 10-15 facing a horde of level 35-40 monsters... As Joon did... Didn't end too well... Brave Sir Robin moment was needed.... Saying that though, if you are in a Guild with Friends, and you're all out adventuring together, there can be safety in numbers against certain higher level beasts... However, some higher level beasts will destroy you all....



This games open world is vast... and I mean HUGE! I have only tickled the surface of the world in Auridon and Grahtwood and a little bit in Cyrodill for the PvP... Which i'll get onto a bit later in the review.

I think I must have played this game for at least 30+ hours and have only just done most of Auridon (the stuff that's showing on the map anyway) so the content and missions are there to play, and another thing I love about this game is that everything can be done with your Friends. Each of the missions (other than the solo quests) in the game are playable with Friends or anyone else for that matter who is at the same stage, or at least mission as you. You can see other players in the world which gives the settings a nice sense of atmosphere. The towns are beautifully designed and the houses/buildings have that wonderful medieval feel to them. They kind of remind me of the houses from Bowerstone in Fable 2.

There is good variety when it comes to missions within the game, some are short and easy and it's just speaking to people, others can be more demanding with clearing out caves/mines, so there is a good variety within the game meaning that there is always going to be something different to do... Unless you speak to 2 people who have the same type of mission one after another :P

The dark anchors within the game are a very good way to get some good new gear for your character as well as some XP along the way. Each anchor within the game is a different level and will give you items for that level. However, I will advise to never try and take on an anchor around or above your level when there is only 2 or 3 of you. Evils come thick and fast and you will quickly find yourself over ran. The basic idea behind the Anchors are that you take on wave after wave of bad guys and earn some good stuff, normally when these start if you are in a surrounding vicinity you will hear the sounds of the horns going off and you will see the main frame of the anchor in the sky so they are not hard to miss.



Along with Anchors there are Group Dungeons and Group Bosses for you and your Guild to take part in. Dungeons usually contain 3 stages each of which has a boss at the end which does require teamwork and coordination as these bosses are hard... When you complete them though it is very satisfying and there is a sense of achievement.

Another thing I like with this game although it can be annoying is that when you have a marker set and its showing in your compass, 9 times out of 10 an as the bird flies route wont suffice... mainly because you will have a big mountain in front of you which you can't climb and have to walk around. So you have to plan your journeys to make sure you know where you're going and how to get to the marker. Or if you are like me, just wing it and see if you can get there on blind luck... Might take you a lot longer, but who cares? Just enjoy the scenery... Also, I would highly recommend getting a horse... If you haven't unlocked Wayshrines in different areas it can make for a very long journey and horses can help with this!

I have found the PvP in the game to be quite annoying. This is an element that I want to enjoy and play regularly but I have come across problems with it that I find when getting into combat make it unplayable and quickly find myself going back to do missions in another area. What I have found when getting into combat is that people have been able to hit me from a distance they shouldn't be. I will be several metres away from an opponent and they have been able to swing their sword and hit me even though they are no way near me and it gets frustrating. I think I'm going to have to level up a bit more and get some better armour and I'll review the PvP side of things properly.



There have been other issues that I have come across with the game as well, such as he constant message of 'This maybe an unusually long load time' and being booted from the servers, this I'm hoping will get better as things stabilise with the servers, but it is kind of annoying, especially when you're trying to respawn and you're sat there for up to 5 minutes waiting to load back in... (Yup, I have waited 5 minutes before... Maybe even longer at times...)

There have been people who I have seen compare this game to Destiny, and I think that there have been some comments that have been quite right, and I feel that there are elements of the game which you can compare. Such as the Anchors being similar to the public events....The one thing I will say in regards to this game to Destiny, is this is far better planned out. Specially when it comes to the Anchors, each time an anchor starts off it will have different enemies spawning so it makes it different each time.

I have found that the looting system within the game is brilliant as well and not like the aforementioned game above. Everything is always different when it comes to the weapons and is useful. There is always things that are the same such as health, magicka and stamina, however these are useful and I find there isn't much of this type of item that I am destroying or selling.



The emotes in the game are absolutely fantastic. There is such variety with the different things that you can do, from the different dances from the races, to doing push ups and playing the lute... Makes for such enjoyment in an already enjoyable game.

In conclusion I find this to be a brilliant game, however there are some glaring issues within the game from NPCs not showing and you being unable to speak to them or they start attacking you and you fight back. There are also problems as stated above with being hit when you shouldnt, but other than that the game is brilliant and there is plenty for you to do in such a vast open world.

Joon is going to give Elder Scrolls Online an 8.5. Brilliant game, but there are some issues.

[yasr_overall_rating]

Castaway Paradise - Review

If you love your Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon type games, then Castaway Paradise is going to be for you. You get swept ashore after a huge store hits the island and it is your job to try and bring the island back up to speed and looking brilliant.

After starting the game and taking on the tutorial the mayor of the town entrusts you to rebuild and design it how you wish. There are different buildings to fix up, one of which is your own and the others are of the residents there, or the lighthouse on the west island.



One of the things that I loved about this game is how open it is and how you’re free to do whatever you wished. Want to collect the fruit from the trees? No problem go ahead, want to spend your time fishing and building up that collection, not a problem either. You can crack on and do whatever floats your boat.

There’s plenty for you to do in each sitting and each of the residents will keep you busy by giving you missions to complete. Usually these consist of a go and get or fixer up type of quest, which are easy enough. I found that getting missions from everyone I could and then going through them kept me on my toes with also doing a spot of fishing and collecting the differing fruits from the trees.



Money is quite important in the game, especially when it comes to rebuilding the houses and bridges within the game. Money can be quite easy to come by with various fruits from the trees fetching a tidy sum and then being able to sell any fish, shells and other items you find on the island. You will have a decent amount of money in no time, and planting more fruit for more trees means more money.

Bridges within the game need puzzles pieces to unlock/rebuild them (you need 9 in total), which you can get via purchasing from the shop or you can earn them by doing quests. I found getting them from quests to be few and far between so I opted to buy what I needed (for the first bridge anyway, you can upgrade the bridge from a wooden to stone) just to get me started and on the other parts of the island. I’ll go back later and upgrade the bridges.



There is also a farming aspect to the game, although basic, it also helps to bring in funding. Any crops that grow go automatically into the silo that is situated next to the patch you use. Once the Silo is full you can sell on any crops that you have, this seems to be the only use for the crops that I can see. Also, depending on what you grow will depend on the amount of time it takes to grow and mature.

I really like the design of the game, the colours that have been used are bright and vibrant and the level of customisation that is available is amazing. You can customise anything from your house to the clothes that you wear. As you level up more and more items will become available to you to buy, and also as you level up you will be gifted some items too, which if they’re not to your taste you can easily sell on. Wallpapers and flooring can be bought, different furniture so you can really go all out with the design of your house. Some items are only available for a certain time, such as at the moment, the summer set is only available for a limited time.

One thing that annoyed with the game was that the camera was fixed, so you couldn’t swing around to different angles, this made it hard if you put a few trees together and when you shook the tree to get the fruit from it, it would fall in the middle of them, causing the trees to obscure where it was, so you would either give up or endlessly walk around trying to find it. However, if the camera could have been moved around, you would have been able to see it and collect with ease.



Also when completing a quest it takes you to the quest page to show you what you have earned from it. Surely it would better to just have the coin count you earn or whatever items flash up on the screen and allow you to just continue on, it feels a bit overkill to have it take you to another screen, which then requires you to go back into the menu before being back in the game.

Castaway Paradise is a thoroughly enjoyable experience and one that I know I will keep returning to, it’s lively with plenty of things to do that will keep you entertained for a while, my only issue is that once the full island has been opened and cleared up etc, how much left there will be to do outside of fishing, collecting fruit etc? Will new quests become available? Will more content be added over time to the game? Time will tell, however, I thoroughly recommend it.

20XX - Review

20XX is a roguelike platformer that has recently launched on Xbox One, the game takes elements from Megaman, but also sets out on its own merit. I will say that I am not a fan of platformers, especially 2d side scrolling ones, never have been and probably never will be. I find them quite a stale genre, nothing new seems to be brought to them other than a change of setting. Even then sometimes with games it can be borderline.

All the worlds within 20XX are procedurally generated, which basically means that you’re not going to get the same run every time, and this isn’t just for the one off, no, every time you play the game the levels are going to be different. There are 4 ‘worlds’ in total that you can play through and these are Ice, Sky, Fire and Jungle. Each of the worlds provides a nice change of scenery and with them being different every time you play will provide a nice element of replayability. Mix this in with the differing puzzles, enemies and more this is definitely a game which is going to provide value for money. I’m not entirely sure how many worlds in total can be generated but it must be a lot!



Even though each world is procedurally generated you can see after a while a bit of repetition in how things are placed. There are 8 bosses for the 4 worlds so this keeps things a little fresher, but these aren’t set in stone and when you finish a level you get three options to choose from based on the different bosses.

There’s a kind of love/not so much love about the game, basically when you do a run through of the levels in other platformers, you get that satisfaction of knowing what’s coming up and remembering each level, sometimes to try and test yourself to do it as fast as you can, so having each run through different does keep you on your toes and you just never know what is suddenly going to be round the corner. But then looking at that from a flip side, you’re playing something different each time, there’s a lot of replayability here and I cannot fault the game for this.



There are upgrades and items which you can get throughout your run through on 20XX, these are also split into 2 different categories, which are permanent and per-run, which as they say on the tin, you either have these as a permanent upgrade or you only have these on a per-run basis. Simples!

There are 2 characters which you can play with, you have Nina who is pretty much a Megaman clone, and then there is Ace who if you like up-close and personal will be ideal for you as his sword wielding is perfect for slashing away enemies. Both characters have their advantages, with Nina’s being a more distance related with her blasters, and Ace having slightly more damage per slash, his strength can also be a weakness with being up-close.



The controls on the game are good and this is one of the most important parts when playing a game for me… Being comfortable playing it, if the controls don’t feel right, then I don’t feel right playing it, but 20XX has the controls nice and comfortable and easy to get to grips with.

I love the fact that this game gives you something different each time you play, yes after a while you will start to see the little annoyances come through from noticing that generated items get slightly repetitive, however take nothing away from the game, the replayability and trying to master the game will have you coming back time and time again, and you will always have something new to play each time. Also, the sheer amount upgrades that you can get will also help freshen things from for each play through. Bonus!

Recommended.

State of Decay 2 - Review

I enjoyed the first State of Decay game, yes it was rough around the edges, but there was potential there. There was definitely room for Undead Labs to build upon this, so when State of Decay 2 was announced way back at E3 2016, my interest peaked, mainly to see how the game was going to be improved upon over the first outing.



Fast forward to 2018 and the second iteration of the game has now been released, and in terms of content, the game has vastly improved, there is plenty for you to see and do in this game as well as plenty of places to raid and loot. One of my only issues when it comes to raiding and looting buildings is that in the world that I am in all the buildings are one floor buildings, apart from a ladder on some buildings to get onto the roof there aren’t any multi story buildings available. Which for me would have added a lot to the game.

Can you imagine, having events in which you could raid a hospital or police station for meds, weapons, ammo and have hoardes of zombies to get through to find the stuff on multiple floors. This would add a whole new dimension, tie this in with the new co-op game play that was introduced and you could use this as events for the game. Invite in friends and take on hoards in special locations. I think that would have been an epic way to help introduce the new co-op feature to the game.



As just mentioned, one of the new features to State of Decay 2 is the co-op feature, inviting friends into your world to help you salvage things and beat zombies, maybe even the hearts that are dotted around the world. I can see the idea where they were going for this and I have to admit, that I like it a lot, but I think overall the execution of it is rather poor. One of the worlds basically acts like a host, this will depend on who invited whom to the game, but overall for the person who has been invited to the game, it can be quite limiting. There are other issues that I came across with this, whenever I played the game with my wife and joined her game, there were massive frame rate spikes, which at times caused me to zip all over the place and made it unplayable for a up to a minute at a time, at which point my wife whose game was fine was having to stand there and defend me in case zombies came up, as I couldn’t move properly due to the issues encountered. This wasn’t just a one off thing either, it happened quite often and at one point, I restarted the game and it was still the same, I restarted my entire Xbox and went back in and it was still the same. I even went as far as restarted our router and both of us restarting the game and trying again… Alas, nothing seemed to sort it.

Another issue that I came across with the co-op mode is that you can feel like a lemon at times. This is mainly due to the fact that you’re unable to split up and each do separate missions, you’re unable to drift too far apart from each other. This kind of makes me feel that the co-op element was just tacked on to include something new for the game, and wasn’t really thought up properly. However, at least there is a form of co-op within the game which I guess is better than nothing being included at all.



How does the game look? It’s not bad, it’s not the best, but the style Undead Labs have gone with adds to the charm of the game, it gives us a gritty sort of look to the game which adds to the overall atmosphere. I have seen people saying how bad the game looks from watching on streams etc and there was a fair amount of comments about it, so I felt a little apprehensive about what I was going to see, however, to me the game looks perfectly fine. It has an edge to it that I like and can’t really complain about this at all.

Now, the next thing that I am going to talk about are the characters. I have found that they are quite hard to actually care about, not because they were horrible people, but just because they were so plain and didn’t really have any personality. This kind of made the permadeath situation more bearable, there wasn’t going to be any tears lost here. I will say, I still haven’t had any one killed… Yet. Been close and I was slamming on the A button and my character had a Doctor Who style regeneration and was given a small portion of health back in which I used this to run away from the situation I was in. Another thing with the characters that I found was the voice acting seemed out of place, as though they didn’t care, it didn’t seem to reflect the situation that they were in and a lot of the comments were quite throwaway in that they didn’t seem to have an effect on the group. One instance being that it came up saying that someone had started a fight or argument for whatever reason. Now, you would think that this would have caused the group morale to drop right down into the red… Nope no change. You could switch to that character and pick the person they fought or argued with and they would be happy to go out together. Now if that was me, no chance. I wouldn’t be out with the person I just fought or argued with, they might try to kill me, leave me for dead… Anything.



There is some variety to the game to mix things up for you, with Plague Hearts, Looting, helping others and base management, there is a lot of things to keep you occupied. The only annoyance is how often the game regenerates things for you to do. Especially when it comes to base management, it seems that there is always something to do to get morale up. It asks to clear infestations, so you do it, but it doesn’t seem to do any good because in the blink of an eye there are more and more. It seems like a never ending cycle which means other things don’t get done. Personally I don’t go after them as often as I used to, mainly due to the fact that there are more important things for me to be doing within the game. (In my opinion, everyone will manage their games differently)

Overall there is a lot of things that have to be done to this game, performance wise and glitches/annoyances do need to be addressed. What’s a little more disappointing to this is that the developers have just released a massive near 20gb patch, however there are still some of the same issues remaining.



I can see the appeal for those who love open world survival games, especially when mixed in with base management. I would recommend this game to anyone if you love that sort of thing, if you didn’t play the first one though I think you’re going to be highly disappointed in the state the game is currently in.

State of Decay 2 is available on Xbox Games Pass for you to try, and I would highly recommend you try it through that before buying the game. I personally like the game, it has its annoyances and issues, which I am willing to overlook because they are something which can be patched, it’s just a shame they are still there after the recent patch.

Stay - Review

When I started Stay, I didn't know what to expect, I wasn't really sure what the story behind it was or what I was going to do. I didn't look at any gameplay videos for it because I wanted to go in with Fresh eyes and from looking at screenshots, that didn't really give much away, which was good, however, it did add to the intrigue.

Stay is a puzzler, the story bases around Quinn who has been kidnapped and placed in a room in which he has to get out of. When he wakes up all he has is a computer with one person to talk to.... you...



The idea of the game is to speak with Quinn and help him on his way, help him get through the ordeal and find his way out. There are several options when you're speaking with him, you can be a caring soul asking about him, see if any of that links up to why he has been kidnapped, or you can be as cold as ice and basically not care about his many many ramblings and tell him to snap out of it and find a way out, which he isn't thankful for a lot of the time, but can be grateful for the push back to reality as he kind of loses his way in his ramblings.

As your speaking and decide on the course of action to take with Quinn, there are different puzzles which you have to figure out, these range from moving books, fixing broken plates, or trying to get a lock undone through moving blocks around. What I really liked about the game was the relationship I could build with Quinn, there are many ways in which you can go with this, and it was another reason I liked this game so much, is that there are several branching ideas going on which depending on how the game plays out, you could end up with 1 of around 7 endings I think. This makes the replayability of the game very good because when you're playing through you can think 'Oooh, what if I had said that or asked him to do something differently, how would it have played out?' - In the one play through that I did, I only killed Quinn once, and this was because I asked him to break a door down which crushed him... Pretty heavy door!



The design of the game is Pixel art, which is very nicely done, and to be honest it suits the game down to the ground. The game bases around a chat room, which is how you're communicating with Quinn, there are also stats that you can switch to see how your relationship with him is going and how much the trust level is between you. This seems to be quite important as the more he trusts you, the more inclined he is to go with the suggestions you're making.

This game really shocked me, I didn't think I was going to like it very much from what I originally saw from the screenshots of it, but after playing it and going through the emotions and different topics that the game brings to light, it can hit home quite hard, especially if you've suffered from depression or anything else the game brings up.



All in all, an excellent game and one that I would highly recommend.

Sea of Thieves - Review

This was one of the Xbox One exclusives that I was looking forward too, after playing Assassins Creed Black Flag, having a dedicated pirate game where I could sail the seas with my friends in search of treasure, figuring out riddles and battling monsters from beyond the deep was a match made in heaven.

The trailers promised lots, with vast fortunes and quests aplenty. The realism is that when you first start the game there are hopes and aspirations of having a massive amount of gold in chests and bling hanging from your character, but it really isn't like that at all. The islands are empty and lifeless, other than a few chickens, pigs, snakes or skeletons and after a visiting a few it starts to get tiresome. There is nothing to collect other than the essentials for your boat such as bananas, wooden planks, cannonballs etc, these lie within barrels around islands and are easily picked up, but my question was that if a skeleton comes at me with a sword or a pistol and I kill them, why am I unable to pick this up and use it for myself? Why aren't the weapons skill based so that the possibility of finding common or rare weapons on islands, or as mentioned above, picking up from a skeleton means that you could find better weapons to help you on your journey?



There are apparently lore books lying about different islands, which I have come across one... I would have thought that I would have come across a lot more in this time. In which we managed to find and cash the chest in... The number of islands we have visited and the amount of hours played you would have thought we would have come across more than this? In the latest update, Rare have said that there was meant to be more Lore books placed into the game, but I have still yet to come across another.

I've read that people have said that you have to make your own fun with this game, that is very well and good, but when the islands are empty, there is nothing in sight to collect or find an adventure with, where does the fun start and stop? Because there were times I have to admit I had some real fun with Sea of Thieves, and there were other times I just got plain bored, and the game has been boring more times than it has fun, and again it comes down to the fact that there is simply nothing on the islands in terms of collecting, or warranting going to any of them, only when a voyage warrants it.



A voyage is where you can collect a mission type event from a merchant at an outpost, most of them consist of finding a certain variety of chicken or fighting skeletons. Spawns are random on the game so not every island will have what you're after, and after visiting around 5-8 islands for one variety of chicken, it does start to dampen the spirits a little bit.

There are other events which occur at fortresses which I haven't tried yet, mainly because of the constant bombardment from the skeletons on the island and also the other ships in the area, my little vessel would not last 2 minutes. However, those who are willing to give it a try and go for it, the rewards are brilliant... apparently.

There are several merchants on each outpost, offering to sell weapon varieties, clothes and stuff to make your boat look pretty, however, the prices are very high for most of the items and I haven't been able to buy anything for my boat... This is mainly down to the above of not being able to find anything or the voyages not paying a lot, or because of the below.



Other players: Every single time I've managed to find a chest (which isn't many times) I've been unlucky enough to come across other players, who as soon as they see you will just blast you out of the water, or board, kill you and take your chest(s). Now, there is nothing wrong with this, far from it, it's all part and parcel of the game, however when I've spent hours and hours trying to find this said chest, finally find it, get it back to my boat, it would be nice to be rewarded for my what is very hard work. However, 9 times out of 10 you are going to get screwed over, mainly because it's only me and my wife on our little sloop and everyone else seems to be in massive boats with a full crew... This is probably why we're targeted a lot. The one thing I would love to see from this game is an offline mode, where I can play with my wife without my arse cheeks clenching for the entire time in fear that our hard work is about to go down the pan. I did come across one group, who did message to say, we're cool, don't kill us, which is what I would like to see more of, instead of everyone just shooting or attacking for the sake of it, which most people on this game seem to do. I did leave them cause they had a hell of a lot of chests, and that would have taken hours to find, so they deserved their reward... Me... I had a chicken to cash in... Opposite ends of the spectrum.

The one thing I really liked about the game was how it looked, the use of colours both in the day and night cycle is fantastic, and especially at night when you look upon a clear evening and see the stars and an Aurora Borealis is there as well. Sometimes I do like to drop anchor and head up to the Crows Nest just to see the view from around (while also keeping an eye out for other ships).



The atmosphere of the game as well is spot on, going to outposts and into taverns hearing that music playing, makes you feel like you're at home, it's just a shame at any point, someone can come along and kill you and sink your ship while you're enjoying a nice tankard of grog.

Despite the game looking beautiful and the atmosphere being on point for outposts, the game seriously lacks elsewhere, the islands feel dead, skeletons don't seem to be a problem to handle, and there is isn't anything to find out on the open sea. Sea of Thieves doesn't hold you by the hand and expects you to jump into the deep end, however, I've found that this type of approach can alienate some players, especially those who would want to play on there own. Trying to sail even a sloop on your own is hard work, and if you're on your own and come across a massive ship, you're screwed. No other words for it, some serious content update and changes need to be made to the game to make it more enjoyable. More items to find on islands, picking up weapons or being able to find weapons on islands as well.

If you have a couple of friends who have this game, then it can definitely be a blast, but single players are alienated and I think this is where an offline mode could come in handy.

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Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom - Review

Every once in a while there is a game that comes along that you start, get dragged into and then can’t stop thinking about or playing it.

This is what has happened with Ni No Kuni 2 for me. Ever since starting the game up and doing that first part in Ding Dong Dell with Evan and Roland, the game has gripped me and kept me going.



The story starts with a coup of young King Evan... Well, I don't think he was King just yet, it was going to be his coronation when things went pear-shaped. Roland, who comes out of nowhere and quickly becomes a strong ally to Evan.

Evan now without a kingdom goes out into the world and creates a new kingdom, and as part of the game you have to build a kingdom, recruit people for the different areas and build it up to be the best it can be.

From the charming art style to the delightful combat system that the game has, Evans story of building a new kingdom for all will have you running around doing quests and intrigued as to what is to come next for the young King.



The first thing that I am going to talk about is the art style of the game. I found the cell shading style that is being used very similar to that of Breath of the Wild, especially in the use of colours. Which isn’t a bad thing, in fact, I love the art style from Breath of the Wild and this only builds on that charm.

As you play through the game and past the first part, you end up in the main world, and the style changes again and becomes a more top-down shot with what I can only describe the characters being designed as Dorbz characters.

I think the change was done like this due to the sheer size of the world and it makes it easier to get around, although I will say getting from the sky pirates base to Goldpaw of the docks in the south does still take a good walk, and there are beasts set all around in which will either attack you or leave you alone, depends on how they feel. I think if they left it as a third person perspective it might have been too overwhelming, but then again, would that have been a bad thing? There could have been plenty to put about in terms of side missions, people to help and recruit for your kingdom etc.

But take nothing away from how it has been accomplished, the world looks stunning and full of life regardless of which view you’re in.

The combat system within the game as well is very different from the first Ni No Kuni game. This time the turn-based element has gone and it’s a more real-time battle system. You’re stuck within a certain area, which if things are getting too hairy and you need to get away for the sake of your sanity you can run to the edge of the area and you can then escape.



I did find with the combat that it is a little two-fold. When you’re up against enemies at your level or lower it can be very easy to get past, and I found it a good way to grind and level up your characters easily. You then have the beasts which are way above your level that you can come across, and these tend to be a bigger fight, more complex and need a better strategy to beat, sometimes though it can be a hard fought battle if you don’t have the right elements and plan for it. Such as going up against a fire element beast, the best course of action would be to counteract with water attacks. However, if you don’t have any water attacks, then it doesn’t matter, you can still take the beast on, but it’s going to be a little harder to fight and take down.

Then we come onto the Skirmishes. These are basically getting your army together and taking on other armies to either get something back for a quest or to show your kingdoms might, which if you’ve been through the story becomes kind of contradictory to what they’re trying to do….

You have different regiments to the command in battle, from archers, ground soldiers, heavy weapon soldiers etc. Each has a weakness and a strength and it’s yours (Evans) job to command and put each regiment against their weakest opponents for a quick battle win. Sometimes though, if you don’t have the right regiments there, it might be all 4 of them could be up against a stronger opponent, which can prove problematic as the stronger opponents may just smash through your armies. Which isn’t a good thing!

I absolutely love the music from this game, it fits so well to each area, my personal favourite being the music from Goldpaw. It's such a delight to listen too and makes the game that all more enjoyable to come back to.



 

One of the most enjoyable elements of the game that I found and touched on above was the creating and looking after your kingdom. The first level of this is quite simple, the shops and everything are quite cheap and can be fully done quite quickly. Then once you have 25 people in your Kingdom and you have the required 5000KG (Kingdom Guilds) you can move onto level 2 which takes a lot more time to effort to get through. There are a lot more spaces now available, and some which have requirements such as having another building or in this case entire area unlocked before you can go ahead.

There is a lot of strategy to this because you have to think of what is important to the town, what do you personally need more of ? This is what is so brilliant about this, everyone is probably going to build their Kingdom up differently, at the end they will all be the same, but the strategy for doing it, what your needs are etc will be different.



The only downside I will put to this game is that it can get bogged down with the different systems it has, the tactic tweaker I have found a little confusing as some enemies can be borderline when it comes to deciding which sections to put it against. However when you get this right and especially when going up against one of the bigger beasts with an aura around them, you can see the difference that the tactic tweaker makes.

I have to admit that this is a game that has taken over my life, I was a bit reserved about it when starting as I hadn’t played the first one (albeit, really wanted too) so was unsure what to expect, but this game does what I love games to do and that is draw you in from the start, make you sit back and take notice and want to keep on going.

9/10

 

Tesla vs Lovecraft - Review

We’re reviewing another game brought to you by 10Tons, and this time it’s Tesla vs Lovecraft.

Tesla vs Lovecraft is a twin-stick shooter which on closer inspection after playing the game for a bit it is just like Crimsonland, you collect weapons and power-ups to defeat hordes of enemies.



The game starts off by introducing you to the story which is Lovecraft not approving on Tesla and the introduction of electricity, saying that Tesla doesn’t know what he’s messing with.

When you start the first levels, the game takes you through the very basics, letting you know which buttons do what basically, and then when new elements get added to the worlds, it will pop up to let you know what these do or how to use them. The tutorial is basic, but it does the job and helps you get to grips with the game and get into the action.



The game has lovely graphics and each area is well designed and thought out, giving you options at every turn, helping you strategise your next moves. The controls of the game feel nice, the movements are smooth and responsive and the game feels brilliant when playing and making your moves.

When playing the game, areas can get overwhelming at times, especially if you’re unable to get to the spawners to destroy them, this is where the strategising comes into play and using one of the features which is teleporting over short distances. However you can only use this a few times, then you have to wait for it to charge back up. There are times when you die within the game and it does start to feel like a very cheap death, and you question how it was possible, however, what I liked about the game was that the deaths weren't frustrating, you can sort of feel a reward for going back and trying again and I know on the times I died, I went back and did it the next go, I was able to change the strategy that I was using and learn from the first attempt.



During each level you will find a lot of useful items being dropped in, different weapons will start to appear and you will shortly learn which is your favourite, from a pistol to automatic rifle and the trusty shotgun. Sometimes it is best to try and mix it up a bit, different enemies are taken down quicker by certain guns, or when it starts to get a bit too much, getting the auto rifle out and mowing down enemy after enemy. Satisfaction.

Another feature which you get after a short while in the game is the mech armor, and I had so much fun playing as the mech. During each round you have to pick up 6 pieces of mech to get the armor, you then activate it and go to town on the horde in front of you. It’s so much fun and I couldn’t wait to get another go, sometimes extending plays in each round just to keep getting the mech.



The modes available within the game are enough to keep you entertained and there is also a co-op mode within the game where you can get up to 3 friends to join you on your quest.

Overall the game is a pleasant little shooter to play, I know there are plenty available on the PS4/Xbox One, but the satisfaction and reward this game gives you is worth a few hours of your time.

8/10

 

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Bridge Constructor Portal - Review

I enjoyed the previous Bridge Constructor games, and this portal version of the game was something different to try with the franchise. I have always liked these type of games for getting the brain going, getting me thinking about what my next step is or how am I going to tackle this next obstacle.

The basic idea for the game is that you have to try and build a sturdy enough structure to allow a forklift over it without it collapsing. There are 60 levels to complete with levels getting progressively harder the further you get into the game with more and more items coming into play as obstacles for you to build over or around.



You will find that when playing this game that there are going to be a lot of failings, and when I say a lot, I mean it. I lost count of how many times I managed to fail levels, but the idea behind it is to make tweaks to your design and try again. If it shall fall once more, back to the drawing board. This was the same on the previous Bridge Constructor and I liked the fact that they’ve stuck with the core gameplay here.

There is a tutorial to the game and this guides you through nicely, teaching you the essentials and getting you ready for what lies ahead. Things aren’t thrown at you quickly, and new introductions are done quite timely in a way to not overwhelm. Which I have to admit was a kind of blessing, especially after mentioning above about the failings you’re going to suffer, the game allows you to get used to things, while still not making it stupidly easy, it keeps you at a level before bumping it up slightly and introducing something new for you to play with.



The latter stages can be tedious and get a bit repetitive. The further you get into the latter stages you will start to find that levels start to take a little bit more time to complete, sometimes taking up to 50 minutes to an hour to complete. This is all down to failings and having to tweak your design to make sure that your forklift can get across.

Button and touch controls are good, they are well thought out and do the job, however the zooming of the camera isn’t the best and you can tell that it would be better suited to using a mouse for it as it does need precision, and there is a lot of clicking what has to be done when it comes to placing the items you want, which isn’t the best for using a controller and again can become tedious.



I found that the use of the Portal license has fallen a bit flat. Jokes don’t really hit the spot and it seems that they’ve decided to thrown this onto it after. Suddenly deciding when the levels are designed that they need to add a little more to it, it doesn’t hurt the game and the game is still fun, it just feels like something is missing and it could have been used a lot better than it has been.

Bridge Constructor Portal is a good game, just like its predecessors it hits the spot in terms of an enjoyable puzzler, it plays well on the Switch both docked and handheld and if you like your puzzlers and haven’t played any of the other games in the series, that won’t matter. This is a good of a starting point as any and if you enjoy this, I would recommend the other games in the series.

7/10

Toki Tori 2+ - Review

Toki Tori 2 was originally released on the Wii U back in 2013 and has followed the latest trend for the Switch which is to port over as many Wii U games as possible, well, you have to be honest, not many people played the games that came out on the Wii U and with the growing boom that the Nintendo Switch is seeing, why not get those games on there and give people a chance to try them, and give the games a second breath of life.

Toki Tori 2 is a 2d side scrolling puzzler where the main aim of the game is to interact with creatures that are on the screen, doing so will allow you to progress and progress until finally, you reach the end of the level and you can move onto the next one. The controls for the game are very simplistic and easy to use, it's a 2 button control with the A button providing a whistle to attract creatures or other things, with the B button doing a stomp kind of movement which can break floors, cause creatures to move away into other positions, helping you get up to higher levels etc.



The game starts off easy enough simply taking you through the levels giving you easy puzzles to solve, but the further you go the harder it gets and soon after playing it isn't long before the game starts to test you, and with a 2 button control I did wonder whether they would keep the pace or just throw you under the bus. The bus came faster than anticipated, which if I'm honest was good, I don't think with games and controls like this there is too much need to be messing around, if you've got the content to challenge regularly then don't hold back, go for it and Two Tribes certainly have gone for the 'balls deep' approach, which I approve of.

So don't let the look of the game lure you into a false sense of security, it may be a cute little chick that's on the screen with other nicely designed and coloured animals, but this game will screw you over faster than a Barcelona train ride. Some puzzles require you to get several creatures into position and make sure that they're where you need them to be when they have to be... Otherwise, it's all going to go south and that was one thing I loved, the timing and concentration needed



One thing that did appeal to me with the game was the beautiful use of colours and how the game was designed, it was bright, lively and felt like a game that (if I had one) I could get my child to play quite happily. The game is sharp looking as well, which I approved of, there was detail there in the level design and coupled with the wonderful use of colours made it a magical masterpiece of colours and entertainment.

The beautiful vistas that you can view throughout the game come in the form of Grasslands, Waterfalls and a Volcano, and they all play at 60fps on Handheld and TV Mode.

One niggling frustration that I had with the game though is that should you get stuck on a puzzle that's it, you're there until you figure it out and I will admit that there were a few occasions I was stuck on puzzles for about 10 minutes trying to figure it out by trial and error before I eventually gave in and looked for help online. God bless the internet.



One brilliant little change that has been introduced to the game since the Wii U version is the ability to call in a checkpoint where ever you wish. I know it can't help you complete the task at hand, but it gives you a very easy way to reset the level should things go a little pear-shaped.

The Switch version of this game is the best version that is going currently, mainly due to the portability aspect of it, and if you're not bothered about the level editor which is available on Steam, I would highly recommend this version for you to play.

8/10

 

Kingdom Come Deliverance - Review

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a game that I have been following since the beginning when its original Kickstarter was announced. I’ve followed the progress of this game and have been looking forward to its release. I have to admit, I couldn’t be more excited, and the whole premise that’s been shown from the game looked brilliant.

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a nice open world medieval game, with its own combat system to bring authenticity to the times. When you first start it up you can see that it's a good looking game, the finer details of the world have been carved out and the years that the game has been in development have been well spent making the world look wonderful. One issue that I did have in terms of how it looked, was how the scenery appears in the distance, they looked a bit like cardboard and washed out. On a beautiful clear day you would have thought that things you could see in the distance would have a little bit of crispness to them, but take nothing away from the game, what you have in front of you is something that has been shown a lot of love.

In the world, there are traders of all varieties from blacksmiths, clothes, grocers etc to call upon your every need. There are taverns that you can frequent, and this brings me to an important part of the game, food. You have to make sure that you’re fully fed and your character isn’t hungry/starving if they are this can have an adverse effect and cause issues when in combat amongst other things. You can make your own food, pick up stuff that’s lying around. Different bits of foods will have differing effects on how much they fill you up. Having just an apple won’t do much for your hunger, so to get well fed you will have to find a nice meal somewhere.



One thing that I like about the game but find it frustrating at the same time, is that your actions affect the game. If you’re constantly seen pickpocketing or starting fights in public then the locals will not take to you very well and have a low opinion, if you’re seen helping people with side quests etc then you will have a better standing in the community. Also, this will help you in terms of speech when it comes to having to persuade people in your favour as your standing will be an important factor. After all, people won’t do just anything for anyone.

I did mention above that I found something frustrating about this and I can hear you now “Jon, what is frustrating about this”… Well, at the start of the game I accidentally pickpocketed the guy you’re meant to buy charcoal from, mainly because I couldn’t get him to sell me any, the option wouldn’t come up, just kept saying “Rob”, so I clicked on the command, took the charcoal, happy days. As I had taken too long with the quest, the beer the old man had asked for was as ‘Warm as piss’ – So he sent me out for another cool one. I went back into town and a guard stopped me, said I had stolen and would have to pay the fine…. Guess what, I had no money and no amount of silver tonguery would get me out of this mess, so I was sent to jail, however being sent to jail at this point in the game leads to you dying…. A cutscene occurs showing your character burning to death in jail while there is some kind of ruckus going on outside (ruckus which you discover the reasoning behind shortly after). So, my issue was, when I spoke to the old man and he sent me back down to get the beer, the game had autosaved… and let the loop continue… Thrown in jail, die. Again, it happens, think of it like a good old game of Call of Duty, Spawn, Die, Spawn, Die.

So my only option at this point was to start the game again and go through what I had just done again and try not to steal anything. I did try and fight my way out of the situation like a true legend, however, it wasn’t meant to be, my arse was royally handed to me and a new game was my only option.



When it comes to NPCs and animations, I’m afraid this has let the game down a lot, most of the character models are reused within the game and different areas. There are a fair few different ones, but there have been numerous times where I have seen the same model being used several times, and those who have read a lot of my reviews, know that this is one of my pet peeves when it comes to games, I hate the same models being used time and time again. I understand that it sometimes has to be done to save time and also save on the budget, but try and make it not so obvious.

The animations with the characters when they’re I've found a little off, body and head movements weren’t what they should have been or were completely random. The movement of the mouths was a little off and sometimes the character would be talking, the body moving but the mouth was still, which I was a little put off by.

I’m going to move onto the Combat now, as this was my biggest let down for the game, I understand and can see what the developers were trying to go for when they did the combat system, that realism of clashing swords and having to use tactics and not just slash, slash, slash at your opponent is a nice idea, but I think in terms of the game it causes it to fall flat on its face in some respect. From fist fights to sword fights I couldn’t grasp the concept of what I was having to do to hit the character opposite me.



The training element at the start was no help, as taking that into a real combat situation it felt completely different. When training, the guy didn’t fight back at you, you had free reign to do whatever you wanted and what he was asking you to do. This becomes a completely different kettle of fish when there’s a guard in front of you with a sword slashing away at you which then only takes 3 hits and you’re dead. (This is based on wearing no armour, this obviously changes slightly with differing armour) Even when trying to block shots, because of stamina, when someone is going full on at you, that depletes and you’re unable to block which means you’re pretty much dead.

I did enjoy the Bow and Arrow more than the sword, getting that perfect shot in the eye was rather satisfactory and did become my weapon of choice, mainly because as mentioned above, the hand to hand combat does let this game down.

The game overall is a very good one and I have to admit that I was right to be excited about it, the worlds are brilliant and reflect the times well as well as being beautifully designed. The story is told magnificently and I always love it when it the story keeps you coming back for more.

The only downside for me is the animations within the game and the combat system, the latter of which may be enough to put people off the game. I really hope it doesn’t, and if you’re getting frustrated with it, power through, it’s worth it, plus when you get the bow and arrow, that makes things even better.

Aperion Cyberstorm - Review

Aperion Cyberstorm is a twin-stick space-based shooter which has 3 available modes for it. Campaign, which is basically as it says on the tin, it's the story mode for the game, there is a versus mode which is a game mode for you play against your friends or against AI opponents and includes 8 different game modes within it, and finally there is an onslaught mode where you have to survive as long as you can.

The campaign mode for me was the bulk of expedition for this game, and within this mode, it is your task to try and find members of your team who disappeared 2 years earlier. Lovely. There are 6... count them, 6 difficulty settings for this game, 3 of which are unlockable. What kind of got me about this was, do you need 6 difficulty settings? Surely with 6, there isn't going to be much difference between them? I have to say though, saying that I can see the good and the bad with it. The good being that if you wanted to tickle your way up the difficulty settings it is a good way to do so instead of going from 0-60 in the click of your fingers. The bad being, could you really play this game 6 times over just for slight boosts to the difficulty? After playing it, I would have to say no, for me, the campaign was only there to be played once. I'll explain why further in the review.



Throughout the campaign, you can collect different abilities and ships, each of which will give new or enhanced perks to take through each level. I did have some issues with the game, particularly the campaign and this was down to the atmosphere that was created with the story. There wasn't any, it was lacklustre at best, I'm meant to be getting pounded left, right and centre by enemies and the music is as calm as anything, nothing to heighten the tension and what was going on, big enemies would appear and you would think that something was about to kick off, but nope, nothing untoward here, just going about my day as normal killing things.... The game needs that tension for space battle, it's meant to be a rescue mission, not a toddlers lullaby.

Speaking of enemies, nothing really posed a challenge to me, I had it on the middle setting, which I think is the average difficulty, but I didn't really have any issues, enemies didn't really cause a problem as long as I was moving about while shooting, they seemed to die quite easily. Which was nice.

The overall story I found quite dull, it was meant to be this epic rescue mission which I think because of the lacklustre atmosphere created meant I didn't really care whether I saved the members of the team or not. Which if I'm honest shouldn't be the case, it should be there to grab you, drag you in and want to make you find the team, but as the game didn't really give any self-importance to the mission, I didn't care about what I was doing, just flying around these levels shooting stuff up. Which in the grand scheme of things, got a little boring.



Level designs and the lighting used is an interesting one, there is only a certain amount of area around the ship that is shown the rest of it is dark, so sometimes you can't see whats about to come up around the next corner, which did make things interesting as sometimes you might have to make quick manoeuvres to get out of enemies way.

Onslaught was a mode that I enjoyed, just playing against wave after wave of enemies and trying to get as high as I can each time. You can earn stars with the mode and this helps to unlock more maps for you to play in, the longer that you stay alive the more stars you will get! It's a simple mode, but for me with the type of game this is, it works quite well.



Overall, within the campaign there is a lot of room for improvement, the tension and atmosphere created for the story just aren't there and a shaking screen to represent an explosion just isn't going to cut it. The game does have a saving grace within its Onslaught mode, which is entertaining and a time guzzler.