Review Category: Games

Review: Space Hulk / Developer: Thomas Lund / Publisher: Full Control / Platform: PC Game / Release Date: Out Now

The board game Space Hulk is a strategy classic. Though it has been through three separate editions since its launch in 1989, the basic premise and game elements haven’t changed. This two-player game pitches the heavily armed and armoured Terminators against the fast yet lethal Genestealers in the confines of a derelict space ship. It easily evokes a mix of claustrophobia and violence, making it heavily reminiscent of the movie Aliens, especially when you consider that the alien Genestealers don’t have guns but are still fast and lethal. The adaptation to PC has been eagerly anticipated by many, especially as the actual board game seems to go out of print the minute they release a new edition.

The video game version of Space Hulk defaults to the Terminator side; you can only play the Genestealers in multiplayer or Hotseat mode. This adaptation emulates the original board game as much as possible; simulated dice are rolled for combat; movement and combat occurs by spending action or command points, of which you get a limited supply. You take it in turns to act; The Terminators do their thing, then the Genestealers and so on. They are twelve missions in total, and they mostly boil down to killing as many of the enemy as possible, and also getting to key points on the board without losing too many of your Terminators. The graphics are very pretty and the look and feel of the game is appropriately high-tech Gothic, just what you’d expect from one based on the Warhammer 40,000 game. It sounds great, it looks great, and the game itself was already a classic due to its clever design and easy play style.

Sadly, this release is flawed in some significant ways. For a start, there are plenty of minor glitches, from slow online multiplayer and enemies not disappearing when you shoot them to the game outright crashing. Sometimes, the mouse simply gets lost and you can’t navigate around the board easily. Worse than that, the game is unplayable in hot seat mode. Part of the charm of the board game is that the Genestealer player has a thing called ‘blips’. Like the scanners in the movie Aliens these blips represent a number of monsters. The Genestealer player knows how many creatures each blip is worth, but this information should be hidden from the Terminator player, allowing for bluffing. Sadly, in Hotseat mode, that information is right on the screen for both players to see, utterly negating a big part of the fun. It’s also slow; every time you move a Terminator, it plods slowly like the walking mini-tank it’s meant to be. But it’s just a little too slow, and after a while movement becomes a chore. Speaking of movement, this can be tricky at times and the movement interface is a little unreliable. This has been worked-around by introducing an ‘undo’ button, which also undoes combat actions (which would count as cheating in the board game), and takes more away from the game than it adds.

All the elements are here to make this a perfect adaptation of the board game, it’s just that it clearly needed a bit more quality testing. Though updates and patches are rolling out practically every day, it’s hard to deny that this is a good game buried under a pile of bad decisions that make it much less fun than it ought to be.

Review: Batman – Arkham City Escape / Designer: Matt Hyra / Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment / Release Date: Out Now

Modern video games can be high cost exercises, with budgets in the millions. So it may come as no surprise that, like its cousin in the movies, Batman: Arkham City has a whole host of franchise related tat. This has an included an inevitable board game. When it was first announced, we were a little sceptical. Games publisher Cryptozoic has produced games such as The Walking Dead Board Game and The Big Bang Theory Party Game, both of which had little to do with the TV shows they were apparently based on.

Luckily, Batman: Arkham City Escape breaks this trend; it does simulate the fun of the source material to some extent, but also sticks to its roots and is a entertaining two-player board game that takes about half an hour from start to finish. Mechanically, this is a player versus player card management game, with the board being used to track a complicated scoring system. What all that jargon means is one person plays the villains, and the other person plays the role of Batman. The goal for the villain player is to get a set number of bad guys to the bottom of the board as quickly as possible, and Batman’s goal is to stop them. Conflict is resolved by rolling dice and playing cards.

Different types of cards are used for different things. For example, Batman has a Utility Belt deck, and gets to pick four gadgets out of a possible eight. This means the Batman player can employ different strategies from game to game. As there are many crooks and only one Batman, the player has to consider his movement around the board carefully; does he try leaping from Gothic gargoyle to gargoyle in order to intercept his foes, or does he rely on his cape or grapple, knowing that if he selects these gadgets at the start of the game, he has less of a chance of stopping the scarier foes such as Killer Croc?

There are also cards that randomise the types of villains that can be played, the types of cool things either side can pick up, (including allies) and combat is also card based. Combat is a critical part of this game, and it flows very well. Custom dice make all of this much easier to calculate and manage. Components wise, the build is okay. The cards are little flimsy, and it suffers from the typical flaw of Cryptozoic tie-in games in that it uses art from the game and this is less impressive in print than on screen, but these are very minor gripes. Overall, it evokes the spirit of the game very well and will have you claiming to be the Dark Knight in no time at all.

Review: Codex Eldar / Publisher: Games Workshop / Release Date: Out Now

Codex books are special rulebooks for the Warhammer 40,000 wargame; they explain the backstory for the models and special rules for them. Collectors of specific factions are always after a new book, especially after a new main rulebook has come out. The Eldar range had been neglected for a while, so when a new codex came out, fans held their breath and hoped for the best.

Luckily it exceeds expectations; not only is it a full colour hardcover, it’s also filled to the brim with ideas and stories designed to spark the imagination. The sixth edition of 40K is as much about telling stories as it is about winning a tactical battle game, and Codex Eldar is filled with new and original takes on these popular space elves. The book is lavishly illustrated and there are many snippets of history and background. They’re fun, interesting and clearly biased in favour of this particular faction. Some of the material contradicts tales and concepts from the previous editions of this codex, and this is clearly a deliberate step; these are meant to be seeds for the reader’s imagination, rather solid facts. That said, one of the most powerful creatures in the Eldar book, the god-like Avatar of Khaine isn’t given much of an update, setting wise, which is a pity as it’s been pretty much the whipping boy for every other faction in the game and it would have been nice to see this fixed.

Rules wise, the book gives the Eldar a badly needed update. The biggest change is the Battle Focus rule, which means models can run and shoot, or shoot and run. This means that you have twice as many tactical options as your opponent. The new take on psychic powers presents similar options, making the Eldar the option for confident tactical gamers who are able to think and adapt quickly, and enjoy using rapid and risky tactics. The new models are nice, but older kit has not been marginalised; if you’ve not dusted off your models in over a decade you’re probably still good to go.

The enhancements in the iPad addition are nice. Clicking links to explore various passages and sections of the book is a nifty feature, and useful during play. In the paper and ink version of the book, you just get pictures of the painted models; the iPad enhanced version lets you rotate the models and see them from all angles and in different paint jobs; very handy for the model enthusiast. Also, the digital version can be updated as new rules and models for that edition of the game come out.

Overall, this is a fine update to one of the core factions in the Warhammer 40,000 game, and should delight those who enjoy playing with sci-fi toy soldiers with an elf-themed twist.

Review: Jack Keane 2 – The Fire Within / Developer: Deck 13 / Publisher: Nordic Games / Platform: PC / Release Date: Out Now

As the name would suggest, Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within is the second outing for German developer Deck 13’s titular hero, and, in defiance of national stereotypes, it’s bloody funny. Which is a good job too as the game is not without its faults…

The start of the game finds Jack (think Guybrush Threepwood crossed with Indiana Jones) in a Shanghai prison, shacked up with an African Shaman who proceeds to plant the map to a great treasure within his mind before inconveniently karking it. Also given part of an amulet, Jack must venture the globe locating the remaining pieces in order to find his prize.

The story itself is engaging and well written and along the way you meet a host of over the top characters, some of whom you get to control at certain points. These include feisty Amanda (Jack’s main squeeze), seductive Eve (if you fancy something different for Jack), Teutonically efficient Carl, the mortally challenged Shaman (who you repeatedly encounter in Jack’s delightfully surreal subconscious) and the villainous Professor Umbati. Another favourite is the literate, gourmet(ish) chef ape that you first come across in a wonderful homage to Donkey Kong.

The voice actors generally do a good job but, as with most point and click adventure games, there’s the odd dud delivery or contextually inappropriate phrase uttered. Fortunately the writers have given each character enough ‘failed attempt’ responses that your innards won’t curl in despair at the sound of the actor’s voice as you attempt to use a pineapple with an umbrella for the tenth time (older readers will no doubt still get twinges of this every time they hear Eric Idle’s dulcet tones). There’s a neat little fighting sub-game that is utilised throughout and the puzzles are pretty logical so they don’t leave you wanting to put your fist through the screen. Unfortunately, and once again in defiance of national stereotypes, the same cannot be said for the controls…

Jack can be controlled by using the mouse, except that he can’t, not really. You’re supposed to be able to hold the left button down and Jack will follow wherever you may lead, but due to the perverse camera angles (fixed as well, to add insult to injury) this is nigh on impossible to use. Fortunately you can also use WASD to walk Jack around the screen, which is much easier (though not flawless). If only they would control the damn camera angle as well.

The game also features pseudo platform elements where Jack must jump onto, around, and off various objects. However, using the jump in conjunction with the controls, and the seemingly always awful camera angles, is infuriating and results in huge amounts of unnecessary time lost. There are also a number of bugs in the game such as objects not responding to being clicked on (depending where the player is stood) and the occasional fall through scenery (requiring you to reload your last save). Given the German version’s release was in 2012 this really should have been tidied up by now.

Despite these flaws, this is a fun game and is worth persevering with, especially if you’re a fan of the point and click adventure genre. It’s a well written, beautiful looking game with a wicked, surreal sense of humour. It just could have done with a bit more ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’.

Review: Deadpool / Developer: High Moon Studios / Publisher: Activision / Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 / Release Date: Out Now

The Merc with the mouth gets his own videogame! Assassin turned genetically modified madman Wade Wilson has finally convinced the powers that be to grant him a game of his very own. All it took was a little bomb and a lot of swearing. Lewd, crude and amusingly violent, it’s fair to say that Deadpool hasn’t been toned down at all for his videogame debut.

For better and worse, Deadpool does a great job of capturing the comics’ source material. Whether it’s chiding the player for not being very good, calling the developers at High Moon to complain about elements of the gameplay he doesn’t like, or making constant references to silly videogame conventions, Deadpool never shuts his face. Readers who find the character annoying would be advised to either give the game a miss or play with the volume turned (way) down. It’s fair to say that any urge to turn Deadpool grim and gritty has been well and truly resisted. Deadpool swears, farts and chomps his way through the game, only ever pausing to reload or chop off a head or fifty (and even then, not always).

Like the excellent Punisher video game of 2005 (this writer’s favourite comic book game of all time, Batman be damned) Deadpool has no qualms about its adults-only rating, with its script and gameplay being some of the most hilariously bawdy we’ve ever seen in a game. Those familiar with Marvel studios from their recent cinematic output alone will be shocked and outraged by Deadpool. Fans, meanwhile, will be applauding the company for giving them what they want. We would have preferred a sequel to The Punisher, but this is close enough. The story has mad mercenary Deadpool plotting the course of his game and assassinating a rich businessman before going toe-to-toe with mean mutant Mister Sinister. With cameos from Wolverine, Cable and a select few other X-Men, there’s enough nods and winks to the shared Marvel Universe that it should please more casual followers of the character too. No Frank Castle though, alas.

Where Deadpool falters, however, is in its actual gameplay. It aims for the same vibe as Lollipop Chainsaw, Shadows of the Damned, Splatterhouse and The Punisher (I’m going to keep bringing that up until I get a sequel) but just isn’t polished enough to pull it off (cue Deadpool giggling at the use of the phrase “pull it off”). The environments are uninspired – there’s a sewer level, without irony – the enemies that aren’t bosses boring and unexciting. The gameplay recalls Batman’s moves in Arkham Asylum, but that’s not good enough either. It’s never dull – not with Deadpool around – but it should, and could have been a lot better.

That the game succeeds is thanks almost entirely to the strength of the writing, wit and its main character. Deadpool is a lot of fun. For all its flaws, fans of the character should love it. He’s got himself a videogame, so now all Wade has to do is convince the head honchos at Marvel to get him his own film too. And no Ryan Reynolds, please.

Review:  Man of Steel / Platform: iOS / Release Date: Out Now

Superman returns to the app store, following in Batman’s footsteps for a side swiping bludgeon-em’-up adventure which loosely follows the plot of Man of Steel. You’ll step into Superman’s bright red boots to beat up General Zod and his invasion force, punching your way from the streets of Smallville to the grand metropolis of, well, Metropolis.

While the fighting style is similar to that of Arkham City Lockdown and the recent Injustice mobile game, Man of Steel is fresh enough to not feel like a complete rehash. There’s plenty of crunch to the game’s many dust ups, with the Kryptonians’ superpowers nicely escalating matters beyond your common street brawl. Enemies are punched through walls, into buildings and cars, through street signs, and up into the sky and then back down again. Best of all is the game’s use of flight, which allows you to grab an enemy, carry him like a rag doll through the air, bashing him into and through as many obstacles as you can en route. It’s like a version of Temple Run in which you go out of your way to hit things. Maybe when he settles down and gets a job and place of his own in Man of Steel 2, Clark Kent will learn the real cost of property damage.

With loads of character upgrades, superpowers and bonus costumes (alas, only a number of hideous Kryptonian Battle Armours) Man of Steel is addictive fun. It’ll enliven many a dull bus journey or boring lunch break. True, it gets repetitive after a while, but such is the nature of the gameplay that you can dip in and out whenever one feels like it. It looks good too, appropriately bright and cheery, and punctuated with some cute animations detailing the film’s highlights. Given that this is a game you’ve already paid for, the in-game purchases are inexcusable (either make it freeware or have your add ons – you can’t have the best of both worlds!) but such is the nature of mobile gaming.

Man of Steel, however, is, by virtue of not being Superman Returns or The Man of Steel (the 2002 Xbox thing) the greatest Superman videogame of all time (much as many are touting Snyder’s dangerously flawed Man of Steel as the second coming of Nolan, thanks to it not being Returns or Superman 3 or 4). Get on the case, Rocksteady, please.

Review: XCOM – Enemy Unknown  / Platform: iOS, Android / Release Date: Out Now

The popular turn-based action/strategy game arrives at the app store, its addictiveness very much in tow. You oversee a team of crack military operatives – a cross between Warhammer 40,000’s Space Marines and Commander Shepherd’s Mass Effect crew – fighting aliens around the world and across the galaxy. The aliens may look a lot like Seth Rogen in that Simon Pegg film, but don’t be fooled – they’re dangerous, vicious little buggers.

Despite it being more ambitious than your average mobile video game (no more variations on Temple Run, please!) XCOM is very easy to navigate and control. Turn-based combat may not be to all tastes (“sure, I’ll hold still while you blast away at me) but if the continued popularity of Games Workshop has taught us anything, it’s that there’s definitely a market for that sort of thing. And with you being able to rename the soldiers in your squad as they come and go, it adds a very welcome Worms/Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate sort of vibe to proceedings. Depending upon your level of maturity, you’ll no doubt enjoy renaming your characters after either Expendables cast members or very rude words. It’s very good of them to let you have that. And as your squad follows you from mission to mission, you’ll find yourself growing very attached to them all too. I was surprisingly affected by the death of Sergeant Stallone during one particularly badly judged shootout. Tip: getting to cover before the end of every turn is vital.

Following a massive install (it took ages and I had to delete almost everything else from my iPhone) the first thing you’ll notice about XCOM is the incredible graphics. While the load times are longer and it looks rougher round the edges, the step down from PS3 and Xbox is negligible. The format works better too, being very suited to the handheld format. The lack of save points in-between levels is annoying and the unskippable cut scenes are a pain, but it’s otherwise excellent. Just as well, since it has a very hefty price tag for a mobile game. Still, at least that means there’s less of a reliance on in-game purchases and credits than most.

A Candy Crush Saga for sci-fi nerds, XCOM is massively addictive. Past the duller tutorial levels, there’s really no looking back. Prepare to lose hours of your commuting or sneaky boardroom time caught up in tactical gun battles between your hardy marines and those scurrilous alien monsters. If you have yourself an iPhone and plenty of gaming time on your hands, XCOM is a must-have purchase. Your move, gamers.

 

Review: Fighting Fantasy – The Forest of Doom / Author: Ian Livingstone / Publisher: Tin Man Games / Platform: Android, iOS / Release Date: Out Now

Back in the ’80s, adventure game books were the thing that the geek about town had in their back pocket. The Fighting Fantasy series were adventure game books, which meant that rather than reading the thing from cover to cover, you interacted with the book by making various choices and flipping from paragraph to paragraph, depending on what decisions you’d taken. The book also featured game mechanics, and in theory, you needed paper, pencil and dice in order to defeat the various monsters and traps presented between the books pages, but quite often people cheated by skipping past these parts. The books faded in fashion during the ’90s, but thanks to the presence of a smart phone in every pocket these days, these classic games are making a comeback as apps.

The Forest of Doom is a particularly memorable example; not only did it have great art but the premise was an interesting one; you were a forest ranger on a quest for a Dwarfen war hammer. The app keeps all of the charm of the original; this is a deceptively simple game in which being savvy, cunning and lucky will help a lot. Unlike some of the games in the series, The Forest of Doom is one where the path is never easy.

Tin Man has been producing these adaptations for a while, and all the usual features are present; there’s an ability to bookmark pages (so you can go back several moves), a ‘dice rolling’ feature that lets you relive the clatter of dice if you like that sort of thing (and the ability to skip combat entirely if you don’t). It even has a trophy room to make sure you don’t miss any of the good bits. It also features a mode that allows you to cheat your way through the book. This latter feature is particularly relevant to The Forest of Doom, as if you cheat your way through the game it’s over pretty quick, and it’s structured in a way that’s fairly obvious that by cheating, you’ve bypassed the important part; having fun.

The Forest of Doom brings nothing new to the genre, as it’s a new take on an old book, but that shouldn’t put you off, it’s a lot of fun. The new format really does suit it and is ideal for stealth geeks. If you ever wanted to battle hobgoblins whilst in a boring meeting, then this is for you.

Review: Magrunner – Dark Pulse / Publisher: 3 AM Games / Platform: All / Release Date: Out Now

Portal is responsible for two things: encouraging a whole host of puzzle games to be produced, and also ensuring that any such puzzle game would contain a decent story. That said, it’s profoundly unfair to compare Magrunner: Dark Pulse to Portal. Apart from being a story-lead puzzle inspired game, they’re nothing like each other.

The plot of Magrunner: Dark Pulse involves a young man competing with others for the honour of being a space explorer. Set in a cyberpunk dystopia, Magrunner is very exposition-heavy, with much of the drama being told to you rather than discovered through gameplay. Though the setting isn’t particularly rich or original, there are still a lot of interesting little story elements that keep it going, building up to a wonderfully creepy peak when the player discovers exactly what has gone horribly wrong with the world and what malign forces are responsible. As the game dips into horror, the puzzles become harder and the revelations keep coming. Though Magrunner is stuffed full of tropes and odd references, this actually makes the whole thing charming rather than dull.

This is perhaps because you have to work very hard to get anywhere in the game. The puzzles are all based around magnetic attraction. You have a special glove that allows you to grant certain objects a magnetic field, simply by pointing and clicking. Attraction and repulsion make up a lot of the action, but later elements include mag-lev style trains and the like. These make up for a series of very challenging puzzles that can be a little frustrating at times, mostly because it’s really easy to miss with the glove and find yourself being hurtled toward a wall at high speed. The graphics are okay and the design aesthetic is a nice mix of glowing black box and implied evil. Overall, this is a fun game and worth your time.

Review: Animal Crossing – New Leaf / Platform: Nintendo 3DS / Release Date: Out Now

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is genuinely hard to review. Part of the reason as to why is because of the game’s real-time clock, meaning things such as holiday celebrations or seasonal bugs and fish are off limits and must be unlocked as real days go by. But the bigger reason is because at its core, New Leaf is a deeply personal experience.

Back in the days of the GameCube, Animal Crossing was a game that broke new ground. The aforementioned real-time clock meant that the game was technically always playing, even if you weren’t. If you started up your game after three months of not playing, you’d notice that some of your animal neighbours might have moved away and cockroaches littered your home, while weeds and dead flowers scattered your once beautiful landscape. The world changed and it didn’t need you to do so.

The game also introduced an insanely addictive collecting aspect, turning you into an absolute hoarder. From furniture to clothes, to fish to fossils, there were tons upon tons of virtual items for you to get your hands on.

The series really hit its stride with Wild World for the DS in 2006, taking all the fun of the original game on the go and introducing some minor online play. In contrast, the 2008 Wii entry of the series, Let’s Go to the City, is often viewed as a disappointment for completely retreading the same ground of its predecessors without offering anything different.

Learning from the mistakes of Let’s Go to the City, the series has quite literally turned over a new leaf with this latest incarnation on the 3DS. Players are now put in the role of the mayor rather than just a normal villager, meaning you can now build structures such as benches or bridges with the help of public funding, or enact ordinances that cause shops and villagers to wake up earlier or stay up later, to help work the game around your schedule (you can also enact an ordinance that boosts sales of items but causes a higher tax increase, or an ordinance that helps keep your town looking beautiful by having residents plant and water flowers).

There are other new tweaks to the formula as well. You can now buy trousers or skirts (and yes, you’re free to cross dress in the world of New Leaf if you want to), and a visit to a tropical island allows you to play mini-games. The games are more fun to play with a group of friends, but can be played solo as well. Your reward for completing them is medals which you can use to buy exclusive items at the island’s souvenir shop, such as the wetsuit which grants you the ability to swim in the ocean.

There are new villagers and new gameplay opportunities, but it’s still the same old Animal Crossing fun—which isn’t really a bad thing. Your enjoyment will come from donating fish, fossils, insects and paintings to the museum, trying to own every article of clothing and piece of furniture, all while interacting with your fellow neighbours and building a bond between the two of you.

Whether you’re new to the series or a veteran, there’s enough new content in New Leaf to justify a purchase and qualify it as a must-own title for anyone with a 3DS. It may be good to be the king, but New Leaf shows that it’s even better to be the mayor. And for that, it gets…