Review Category: Games

Some bad games have a section where the player asks “Why couldn’t this have been the whole experience?” It’s usually the result of latching onto the one shining gem in a turd of a game, such as the Raven segment of Aliens: Colonial Marines. The tunnels of Bring to Light exist as a counterargument against that, as what starts out as a promising jaunt into a horrifying underground realm quickly devolves into tedium.

The story follows a nameless figure trapped in a subway system, one now seemingly bereft of other people. Travelling between the dimly lit immobile train cars and storage closets, it soon becomes clear that there is something else stalking the tunnels. Something which has crawled its way out of a place not made by human hands.

While as a basic premise, it’s a solid one for an atmospheric horror game. The lure of the unknown, the tension of knowing something is stalking your every step, and the deep shadows of an industrial complex all make for a great starting point. What’s more, the setting has clearly been cultivated to inspire a sense of isolation and hopelessness many indie horror games typically lack. The problem is that it never manages to effectively raise the stakes. While decent graphics, a good musical score and a brilliantly Giger-esque monster all serve as great building blocks toward something bigger, it never gets there. Bring to Light, unfortunately, starts out by playing its best hand, but never offers up a trump card to make things more challenging. The only time the game attempts this is during the finale, which all but abandons the game’s horror theme.

In one moment you can be hunting through the corridors of a subway, and the next you’re suddenly stuck performing block puzzles with lasers. There is such a shift in atmosphere during this that it quickly robs the experience of any tension or horror which might have existed before that point. Say what you will about Dead Space’s puzzles, but at least those were written into the main premise of the storyline and gave you context for your actions. It’s not made any better when Bring to Light starts resorting to abrupt jump scares, or locks more than two-thirds of its doors in order to keep you following an increasingly featureless path.

It’s not that Red Meat Games doesn’t have some obvious talent behind it, as many parts work well individually. Yet when they’re combined together, there is no coherent direction or narrative to keep the experience fresh and actually engaging. Unless you’re one of the few who can forgive many flaws for a moment of greatness, you should skip this one entirely.

BRING TO LIGHT / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: RED MEAT GAMES / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Octopath Traveller is a story of stories. Eight travellers agree to unite in their travels, following their own goals while they wander the world. From a ruthless thief to a pious knight, each is given the chance to tell their own tale, and occasionally take centre stage while following their own arc. In layman’s terms, it’s the Samurai Champloo of JRPGs, and the story is every bit as good as you would think from that comparison.

At one moment you can be participating in a heist, at another investigating a missing member of a character’s family, or hunting for a tome of lost knowledge. The game proves to be bizarrely episodic, but through this it allows every one of Octopath Traveller’s characters to have far more distinction than the usual divide between protagonist and supporting cast.

The combat system is extremely well developed, and proves to be elegantly simplistic. It’s a turn-based system which hinges on exploiting weaknesses in foes and utilising Bonus Points to augment skills. You can generate these during fights and choosing when to use them allows players to chain together potentially devastating strikes if conserved and used correctly. It makes battles remarkably engaging, and it’s one of the best examples since Chrono Trigger on how a game can make a simple but tactically complex system.

Even without this, the side-quests prove to be engaging even when their rewards are lacking. This is largely thanks to the Path action system the game utilises, where characters can perform tasks relating to their role outside of combat. These can open up any number of new opportunities, with the likes of Ophilia the priest being able to recruit NPCs, or Olberic the knight to challenge people to duels. This offers the game a much higher level of replay value than the average JRPG.

Where Octopath Traveller fails to fully succeed lies largely in how it fails to fully debunk a few underlying problems within the JRPG genre. There are multiple points where the game descends into a grind, typically when you’re up against a brick wall of a boss. This drags the story to a screeching halt and, even without these narrative speed-bumps, this only further highlights a few problems with the story structure. While juggling between plots, several stories resort to very abrupt conclusions to close out certain elements. These prove to be very hit and miss, with some succeeding in terms of surprise drama, while others feel like a cheap way to rapidly resolve dangling plot threads.

Despite its two failings, Octopath Traveller succeeds where the likes of Lost Sphear stumbled. It manages to perfectly call back to yesteryear without falling into the same old traps. If you have a Nintendo Switch, this should be an essential addition to your gaming library.

OCTOPATH TRAVELLER / PUBLISHER: SQUARE ENIX, NINTENDO / DEVELOPER: SQUARE ENIX, ACQUIRE / PLATFORM: NINTENDO SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

There’s no denying that the Cthulhu Mythos has suffered from oversaturation over the last ten years, as there seems to be no end to games which can be listed under ‘Lovecraft lite’ with a tentacle-faced dragon man involved. Those which stand out tend to be the ones which parody the source material, such as Cthulhu Saves the World, Fhtagn! – Tales of the Creeping Madness!, or The Miskatonic.

The story follows Charlotte LeStrange, a former member of a witch cult blessed with mind-altering eyes. Hired by the titular university to assist their staff, mutants and the odd eldritch being beyond human comprehension, she soon uncovers a conspiracy within its ranks which is far more nightmarish than any one member of the Miskatonic’s population.

The story contains all the visual novel tropes you would expect (right down to the nudity, but thankfully from nothing with non-Euclidean geometry) and it hinges on a small handful of semi-connect characters. Their personalities are as bold and expressive as the game’s visuals, and the narrative takes full advantage of the dark magic about the place. This results in some of the best gags made about the Lovecraft mythos, both in terms of its fans and the original tales. While this certainly makes the dialogue gag heavy, it’s used as a means to better flesh out the characters involved and keep the player engaged during some of the longer segments between the investigation portions of the game.

Unfortunately, the main problem issue behind The Miskatonic lies in how it deals with its story. It lacks any ability to backtrack, and there is minimal replay value in experiencing the game for a second time. Once you are done, you really are done, and there is little for you to come back to. How much this will impact your experience will vary from player to player, but with a length of only three hours in total and little gameplay, you can easily end up feeling as if you have simply watched someone play your game for you.

Rapscallion clearly had a story they wished to tell with The Miskatonic, and they told it. The problem is that, in doing so, they took the novel part of visual novel far too literally and it lacks the freedom of choice which makes that genre so engaging. The humour is on point, the characters are memorable and, for the second time in two months, we have a great unconventional take on the Cthulhu Mythos. Yet you have to accept you’re just along for the ride, rather than being in the driving seat. Give it a try if you’re after a fantastically humorous macabre story, but look elsewhere if you want an experience.

THE MISKATONIC / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: RAPSCALLION / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Homogenisation plagues any genre or medium as time goes on. Developers are more likely to follow a successful formula over branching out when met with tight deadlines, and it’s always best to build on a success than start anew. The unfortunate sacrifice in the name of more reliable successes is innovation (actual innovation, not the Ubisoft brand of the word) with the daring risks and messily ambitious designs of a genre’s formative years. When it comes to RTS games, few epitomise this lost art better than Metal Fatigue.

The main appeal of Metal Fatigue is how it approaches its subject matter, especially when it comes to offering a new dimension to engagements. While you might have the usual mix of tanks, troops, planes and giant sci-fi robots the map isn’t the usual single plane you’d expect. Instead, it’s divided between low orbit, land, and underground with certain units able to move up and down between the three. Shoot down a plane and it will fall down through one zone to the next. Fail to properly guard the underground, and suddenly a swarm of subterranean tanks might spring up inside your base.

Each zone provides unique benefits, as the land is the best location for buildings, while the underground is one of the most suitable areas for thermal energy from lava. Orbit, meanwhile, is the best location for solar panels and some of the game’s big weapons: Railgun platforms. Yet it’s not the railguns people will remember but the Combots; giant mecha you can wholly customise. Torso, arms, legs, the lot, can be swapped out and reworked to tailor make a new mecha. While each of the three factions has their own preferences – the usual powerhouse, sneaky one, and balanced mob – these can be retooled to fit a number of roles.

Unfortunately, where Metal Fatigue tends to go wrong is when its ambition exceeds its capabilities. Besides a mix of irritating bugs that makes certain swarm units more effective than they should be, the user interface is frustratingly spartan and poorly laid out. In addition to this, most winning strategies rely heavily on hard countering units and ambushes, a problem which is exacerbated by how often underground environments lead to bottlenecks and stalemates. Equally, the mechs themselves lack balance in terms of their parts, which allows camouflage torso and jump-jet-leg-equipped Combots to ambush and annihilate whole armies.

The end result of all this is a game which is brilliant, inventive and creative but is unrefined. It’s akin to playing Tiberium Dawn today, it’s entertaining but it needs a sequel to iron out all of the problems. It’s just a shame we never got that one. Still, for all of its problems, Metal Fatigue still has something to offer even modern-day players.

METAL FATIGUE / DEVELOPER: ZONO / PUBLISHER: PSYGNOSIS / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Glancing at the screenshots of its Steam page might cause the average person to write off Dig or Die as a Terraria clone. Yet while there are a few mild similarities in its visuals and mining through the earth is a core mechanic, you only need to look at its gameplay to realise it’s a very different beast. Rather than traversing the land, killing everything in sight and building up your base Minecraft style, the monsters come to you. You build up a base during the day, see to your supplies, and hold off increasing waves of enemies until you die or find a way to escape.

The entire framework for the player vs enemy dynamic is about as rogue-light as it gets and even ties heavily into the base defence focus. You need to cater to a few specific needs within your base, from securing it against the hordes to maintaining supply lines, but it never attempts to hold you back. There are no ‘X days until you are overwhelmed’ warning, and how long you can hold out is defined purely by your skill and ability to plan ahead. While you cannot simply hold back the hordes with a well-placed door or a few torches, you’re offered no shortage of weapons or means to overwhelm the ever-growing hordes of foes. If Minecraft emphasises survival, Dig or Die promotes surthrival, with you conquering the land and carving out a small portion of it for yourself.

The sheer variety of ways in which you can approach obstacles and counter possible threats is matched only by the types of enemies you face. You can run into everything from quadruped squid monsters the size of a building to man-sized killer bats, and tailoring your defences to combat a single style of foe can often leave you open to being blindsided by another monster. Yet, this gives it a Dwarf Fortress appeal of “Okay, I died to that, but what if I do this instead?”, which keeps you coming back for more.

The true drawback of Dig or Die is that it can be very easily overwhelming for new players, and you can often approach it with the wrong mentality. It’s easy to become frustrated at how the physics engine can throw some nasty surprises your way or the destructible environments can work against you. What’s more, enemies can seem more like unrewarding annoyances over true challenges early on, until you truly get into the swing of things. It all amounts to an odd difficulty curve which can very easily drive away players.

Ultimately, Dig or Die is a very rewarding game, but it will ultimately appeal to those who approach it with the right mindset. It’s worth keeping an eye on, but be sure to watch some gameplay before making up your mind.

DIG OR DIE / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: GADDY GAMES / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The problem with describing Shining Resonance Refrain, is that it plays and feels like a ‘best of’ compilation of other releases. You have ideas, mechanics and characters which are all but openly lifted from other titles, meaning that it can be hard to pick out just where it succeeds and fails on its own merits.

The game is ultimately extremely derivative in its mechanics, but it’s easy to see where it has picked and chosen the best parts of other successes. Influences from Eternal Sonata and Ar Tonelico are both evident in the use of music as a method of buffing and de-buffing enemies, while the relationship links system seems like something straight out of Persona. However, it does these well enough that it’s difficult to fully hold it against the game, while the core combat system is dynamic and fast paced enough to easily disguise some of its more derivative core elements.

Another major point in its favour is the artistic direction, which is bright and extremely vibrant. It has every anime element you would expect from the big eyes to the super-powered attacks, but it’s so carefully crafted that there’s a distinct charm to it. It manages to walk a very careful line between traditional and overly generic that repeats many older inspirations and designs, but still manages to retain its own identity. There’s rarely a level or boss that doesn’t help visually build upon the world in some way, and that’s definitely to its benefit.

Shining Resonance Refrain’s greatest failing lies largely with its lore. The setting and overall concept is as stock as it comes, often playing and feeling like a SNES-era Final Fantasy clone. It consists of stock characters, stereotypes, and generic overplayed concepts we have seen too many times before. Having the evil Empire hunting an ancient power that the protagonist is tied to is bad enough, but when that links into dragon lore and an extremely weak protagonist, it’s difficult to become engaged. It’s only made worse by how the game continually tries to keep the player engaged through dating sim elements and embracing relationship clichés. Combine that with the overly long cutscenes, and the experience it offers can be downright soulless at times.

Ultimately, Shining Resonance Refrain is a game of extremes. The combat system is solid, art direction is beautiful to the point of overcoming its poor graphics, and the Persona style bonding system works well. Yet, with a boring story and forgettable characters it can become a chore to force yourself through the experience. If you value mechanics over storytelling you might get a kick out of this one, but JRPG fanatics should look elsewhere for their next big hit.

SHINING RESONANCE REFRAIN / PUBLISHER & DEVELOPER: SEGA / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBOX ONE, NINTENDO SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

It’s odd to think that Warhammer 40,000 has not entered the 4X genre before now. With its detailed galaxy, diverse races and vast armies, it would seem like a perfect fit. However, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius is a classic example of ‘be careful what you wish for’. It gets the basics right but never pushes the envelope. As such, it all too often feels like an elaborate Civ VI mod.

The story features the Space Marines, Astra Militarum, Orks and Necrons fighting over a world recently colonised by humanity. As they dig in, relics are soon uncovered, which hints at a more horrific past than anyone previously suspected, and soon each of them is locked in a pitched war for survival.

Along with dropping the usual Eldar and Chaos Space Marines for the Imperial Guard and Necrons, there was a definite effort here to try and utilise the distinct nature of each faction. No one plays wholly the same way, and the core mechanics behind them forces you to adapt your tactics according to their gimmicks and strengths. The slow build-up of Necron forces means that early game rushing is almost impossible, while the Orks typically need to utilise their sheer weight of numbers to win the day. Equally, with this being the ‘grim dark future where there is only war’, there is no diplomacy system. This could have easily been a failing of the game, but instead, it has a much more detailed war system, focusing on the interplay between unit types, heroes and vehicles, with various experienced based abilities. This really is a 4X game built for players who favour war over exploration or trade, and that does help it to somewhat stand out.

To its credit, Gladius also offers visuals, sound effects and map elements that fit in perfectly with the ongoing universe. From small touches, which calls back to recent events such as the fall of Cadia, to choke points, artefacts and outposts littering the land for capture, there’s plenty to keep players engaged. All the more so given the considerable might of the natural threats that wander the land, forcing players to more carefully consider how to expand on their holdings.

So, you might be asking yourself, what does it do wrong exactly? The most obvious one among these is the fact that it’s not so much a 4X game as a 2X one, focusing purely on the expand and exterminate elements. While there is a research system, the unique designs and diverging playing styles mean that you do not have too many opportunities to truly tailor make your new civilisation as you wish. This means that if you end up playing the Militarum, there are few ways to truly diversify how to approach challenges. Even if you are trying to outclass an enemy in terms of technological advances, that cannot take you nearly as far as it would with many other series.

The simple truth is that once it gets away from the fighting, you’re left with little to truly enjoy. City building consists of your new settlements growing and expanding over time, but it is quite sterile and lacks the customisation needed to make the experience truly engaging. They’re a means to an end, it means the game is bereft of what should be a core appeal to experiment and diversify your factions. This is only made more notable thanks to how a few poor choices or wrong moves on this front can rapidly end your game early, leaving you with little room to recover. All too often it seems as if there’s only one right way to do things.

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius doesn’t commit any major sins, but fails to do enough to stand out. In a genre where it will be inevitably compared with giants like the Civilisation series, it needed a unique hook or a far more dynamic mechanical system in order to truly hold its own. As it stands, all it really has is the visual distinction and atmosphere of its licence to work with. Warhammer fans may have some fun with it, but if you have even a passing familiarity with the 4X genre, you’ll have a hard time justifying the high price tag.

WARHAMMER 40,000: GLADIUS – RELICS OF WAR / PUBLISHER: SLITHERINE LTD. / DEVELOPER: PROXY STUDIOS / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If anything can be learned from racing, nothing gets an audience going quite like a high-speed collision. As hazardous, frantic and often deadly as they are, the spectacle keeps pulling people back, to the point where the entire Burnout franchise is best known for its slow-mo crash gimmick. Wreckfest doesn’t just emulate this, it glorifies it. It takes the destructive concept as far as it can go without becoming realistic Mario Kart and lets the players loose inside its tracks. Best of all, it never takes itself seriously.

The actual damage reflected on the cars is highly detailed. Unlike other games where you can end up driving a crumpled burning heap of metal so long as it still has four wheels, here it lists off individual damage. The loss of brake fluid, rear spoilers being ripped off an engine damage is all reflected here. While it is by no means highly realistic, it means players need to contend with more disadvantages as they hurtle toward the end.

What’s more, the sheer variety of cars means you end up facing more than merely a mix of old bangers. You can quite easily end up with a school bus racing a modern Jaguar and a motorised lawnmower. A fair few of these are joke options, and they are by no means balanced, but damn if it’s not funny to watch the results. Many of these can even be customised further, with roll-bars and unique paint schemes.

Unfortunately, Wreckfest does have a few very noteworthy problems. Despite exiting Early Access, the game’s AI is overly simplistic, and will typically follow a direct route to win the race rather than engaging in high-speed crashes. Even when you do enter a demolition derby this doesn’t change, and it can be remarkably easy to eliminate yourself. As such this is a game which is only truly fun with friends, and that unfortunately hinders its potential. Furthermore, while it is receiving frequent patches, it is still prone to the odd crash (pun not intended) or even a full-on black screen.

Wreckfest is simple and pure fun. It’s a distilled version of the insane races found on Grand Theft Auto online, but the lack of weapons and greater emphasis on car damage still allows it to stand out on its own. You can semi-tactically choose where and how to bring down a rival, while also riding with a giant plexiglass blue shark mounted on the hood of your car, racing against a combine harvester. Just keep in mind that you do need a good group of friends to take full advantage of its destructive race courses.

WRECKFEST / DEVELOPER: BUGBEAR / PUBLISHER: THQ NORDIC / PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (PC), NOVEMBER 20TH (PS4, XBOX ONE)

Up until recently, the Switch hasn’t had the best of luck with multiplayer titles. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Overwatch have dominated the PC and console scene over the last couple of years, with Switch users needing to suffice with Splatoon 2 and, to a lesser extent, Doom. Hi-Rez Studios is looking to repeat the success of their home console counterparts with the free-to-play release of superhero shooter Paladins, which is now available on the Switch after a lengthy but successful period of beta testing.

Players compete in 5 vs 5 battles with a choice of three objectives – a standard ‘us vs them’ style Deathmatch, Siege mode in which each team takes control of a central point before attempting to deliver a payload to their base, and the territory-claiming Onslaught, which is Paladins’ version of ‘capture the flag’.

Anyone opting for the free version of the game will have access to a handful of heroes, with the rest of the roster gradually being unlocked through playing the game. There’s also a Founders Pack, which grants immediate access to all 36 heroes, as well as any additional characters released in the future. All of these characters are really well-designed and genuinely do look like they’ve come straight out of a comic book. They all control exactly the same, so the learning curve isn’t too steep in that sense, but each hero feels completely unique due to the huge variety of weapons and abilities that each possesses.

Choosing a character can feel a little daunting, as there’s no information on the menu screen to tell you about the hero’s skills or background. It’s all a bit trial and error until you come across the particular character that suits your playstyle. Each hero can be levelled up individually by spending experience points gained during matches, and a huge variety of equippable ‘cards’ give a massive amount of customisation options to further enhance your abilities. Yes, microtransactions do allow players to purchase upgrades, but these are all entirely cosmetic and have no bearing on the game itself, so everybody is on a level playing field in every single match.  Most people are likely to stick with one or two characters in the end, which sort of makes the others redundant, but it’s always good to have a choice.

Winning a game of Paladins is usually a matter of playing alongside your teammates as a cohesive unit, which makes the lack of voice chat in the Switch edition kind of disappointing. There are other ways to contact your fellow players, but it’s a shame that the most straightforward option isn’t currently available here, especially when Switch users can find themselves playing with or against Xbox One who definitely do have access to much easier ways and means of coordinating their attacks.

Early forays into the world of Paladins can be quite overwhelming, but everything starts to make sense when you begin to work out what’s going on. It remains to be seen how the player base will fare after the not entirely unexpected but almost simultaneous release of Fortnite, as well as the impending launch of Nintendo’s paid online service later this year. For now, though, Paladins is a solid addition to the Switch’s multiplayer library that any online shooter fan should definitely consider taking a look at.

PALADINS: CHAMPIONS OF THE REALM / DEVELOPER: HI-REZ STUDIOS / PUBLISHER: HI-REZ STUDIOS / PLATFORM:  SWITCH  / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW