Review Category: Games

Yes, it’s another survival game. Short of zombies, RPG Maker clones or Rust-style competitive base building, these have come to dominate most release schedules and Early Access lists. However, as with all things there are a few gems amid the generic and unfinished games, with Smoke and Sacrifice being one of the most notable of late.

The story follows Sachi, a woman journeying ever deeper into a dark underworld and hunting for the hidden truth of why she was forced to give up her son.

The greater narrative depth and visual style alone immediately bring the likes of Don’t Starve to mind, but Smoke and Sacrifice quickly distances itself from such games. Besides a very different take on the dark surrealist themes, the story has far more substance to it. You uncover more concrete details behind Sachi’s situation rather than vague guesses, and the worldbuilding is one of its strongest benefits. Both the artistic and audio design was exactly on point, making the world remarkably engaging to explore even as you survive it. There are plenty of visual cues, suggestions and subtle hints to help indicate what certain items might be viable for, even prior to collecting them; something which substantially shortens the usual hunt for the one ingredient you’re missing for an item.

The potential to craft a multitude of varied items is immense, and much of your time in the game will be spent adjusting to just what tool does what. It manages to accomplish this with a surprising lack of busywork, and an easy system to navigate through your various options. However, what unfortunately offsets this is the item durability system of the game. This applies to everything, and if you thought that Breath of the Wild was bad, this will drive you up the wall. Tools, automated systems and even static emplacements will break down over time. This will leave you frequently scrounging to replace just what you have on hand, adding to the already considerable backtracking required of the story.

Worse still, the lengthy tutorials rarely repeat information which can turn a difficulty curve into a sheer cliff face as you try to find out what to do. It’s one of a few basic survival requirements the game skipped, along with the lack of a true hotkey system.

Smoke and Sacrifice is a nice contrast to the typical survival games of its ilk, even the more story driven ones such as Subnautica and Don’t Starve. What it executes well it does brilliantly, but there’s no denying that a multitude of design and UI born shortcomings hold it back from a higher score. If you’re starved of a more visually and narratively engaging survival experience, definitely give this one a look.

SMOKE AND SACRIFICE / DEVELOPER: SOLAR SAIL GAMES LTD / PUBLISHER: CURVE DIGITAL / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Detroit: Become Human is a perfect example of how to mishandle science fiction. It steps into the near future, attempts to utilise parallels or allegories to promote messages, and then pulls its punches the moment it might have something to say. As a result, you are left with a beautiful game with good ideas, but plays things far too safe to stand out.

Set in a futuristic Detroit, the game follows the story of three androids, Kara, Connor and Markus, each working on a different assignment from police work to housekeeping. As each of them is thrust into unfamiliar situations, their growing sentience makes them increasingly aware of how truly wrong the world is about them.

The strongest point in Detroit’s favour is how it mechanically and narratively improves on its predecessors. Besides the lack of a surprise supernatural twist, there are far more branching paths this time and far less of a safety net to rely on. Botch things up badly and you can easily finish the story early with every single character dead. This might sound very similar to Until Dawn’s chief gimmick, but it uses this to make sure your actions have far more consequences. The primary characters never meet, but their actions will directly impact the stories of their counterparts, to the point where a terrible decision in one can only result in another ending in tragedy.

Better yet, there are a number of scenes which help to prove why this style of gameplay is so effective. Both a hostage negotiation scene and a later murder mystery are tense, engaging and fascinating to see how they play out, while scenes such as an android scrapyard are some of the most horrifying sights in the game. These moments are almost isolated episodes within the grand scheme of things, but that only leaves the player with more opportunities to focus on the events within them.

So, what goes wrong here? Simply put, the story mishandles its message. It uses ham-fisted examples to try and enforce its points, and cringe-worthy dialogue to back its messages. Rather than delving into some of the more difficult territories of the subject, all too often the situations are black/white debates which utilise straw men to execute its themes. There is an obvious effort to equate the story to real-world events, and yet it continually fails to handle any of the subtleties or greater difficulties behind them. This alone would be bad, but all too often certain plot threads are driven more by the stupidity of the humans involved over misfortune or misunderstandings, to the point where it breaks any sense of immersion.

More surprisingly still, Detroit frequently wastes a staggering amount of time with its characters. Past Quantic Dream games have often utilised dashes of realism or quieter moments to offer the story a little more initial grounding. Jodie’s home life as a child in Beyond: Two Souls or the apartment scenes in Fahrenheit were classic moments in those games. The problem is that those were just moments, downtime between the more intense action. Detroit instead continually drags its feet and wastes time with scenes of monotony, such as minutes long sequences of clearing up a house. This was likely intended to better reflect how the androids are treated as property, and the monotony of their lives thanks to this. However, without a more coherent direction or stance, it ends up simply dragging scenes out.

Yet what is most perplexing is how it overcomplicates previous control schemes. This is most evident in how you interact with certain objects, where the presence of tilt controls and an oddly slow response to your inputs makes for a clunky and unintuitive system. It often seems that for every good QTE sequence or action, there’s at least one bad one waiting for you right around the corner.

 

Detroit has good qualities, and even improves upon its predecessors in a few noted areas. Yet, the clumsier controls and lack of nuance within its storytelling results in a very artificial experience. It’s pretty to look at, some of the performances are good and the visuals are stunning at times. Even a few uses of android systems can help to enhance the experience at various points. Yet, it nevertheless mishandles too much of its concept by taking the easiest route possible. There are sparks of brilliance here and there, but it fails to fully capitalize on the lessons learned from Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain. Even dedicated Quantic Dream fans may find themselves giving up on this one before the credits roll.

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN / DEVELOPER: QUANTIC DREAM / PUBLISHER: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT / PLATFORM: PS4 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

You play as a giant pizza delivering attack mecha. That line alone should be enough to tell you whether you will love this game or not, as Pizza Titan Ultra is unabashedly exaggerated, cheesy and cartoonish in its every second of gameplay. Framed as something you might have seen on Toonami back in the 90s, the game is filled with pop culture gags, loving jabs at the animated genre it emulates and the sheer insanity of its own premise. Most levels are built around delivering foodstuffs to a parody of cartoon icon and racing through the city in order to accomplish your goals.

Pizza Titan Ultra largely utilises the likes of Crazy Taxi for its inspiration, with a wide city to navigate, a single target, and a score which is impacted by your performance. How much damage you inflict on your surroundings, the speed in which you move and damage taken all influence how much cash you make by the end. More than a few of these are influenced by the unique quirks of your customers, and on a few occasions the sorts of foes you bump into.

The game’s top-down depiction of the city is perfect for the high-speed brawling it encourages, and it means that you can more easily familiarize yourself with the city map. Given the extensive campaign, there are a multitude of times when memorizing certain routes, buildings and possible threats become essential to finishing a deliver in record time. Small quirks like this help to give it a sense of being something greater than the sum of its parts, allowing players who actually pay attention to have an edge in later stages of the game.

Even once you finish up racing through the city there are always things to come back to, from customising your mech to re-trying older missions for a higher score. However, with this being said there are a few minor shortcomings. The most obvious among these is that, if you’re not fond of the humour, the mission dialogue can easily become grating over time. Furthermore, while Breakfall made every effort to keep the experience engaging, there’s no denying that you can find certain missions to be quite repetitive, especially in the lulls between earning upgrades. This only hits the game in its final few missions, but it is notable after such a strong campaign.

If you’re a fan of any cartoony, arcade-style fun, you owe it to yourself to play Pizza Titan Ultra. It’s one of a multitude of hidden gems buried beneath bigger releases last month and is a definite must-buy option for anyone who remembers Playstation era pick-up-and-play games with fondness.

PIZZA TITAN ULTRA / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: BREAKFALL / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Promoting itself on real-time combat, kingdom building and historical accuracy, Ancestors Legacy offers an odd mix of RTS and empire management. With a multitude of factions to control from the Saxons to the Slavs, it seemed set to offer a variant of the genre bereft of the elements which usually drives away casual fans. Unfortunately, the result was extremely hit and miss.

Easily the strongest point in the game’s favour is its artistic direction. There is a distinct balance here in terms of realism and colourful visuals which makes units easy to track, and many buildings are brilliantly detailed. Furthermore, the ability to fully control the camera over having a fixed position benefits both your view of any captured towns and the combat itself.

Every country has at least one unique troop of soldiers to its name. From German heavy infantry to English longbowmen, you have enough elements to give some distinction to the various factions. The mechanics themselves also offer more than mere unit spamming, as combat has a variety of various factors to influence how battles play out, from flanking debuffs to charging modifiers. This is further benefitted by an aggressive AI which can prove challenging in any mode, and a variety of missions which crop up as you expand outward.

However, while it does have its strengths, Ancestors Legacy nevertheless suffers from some notable shortcomings. The greatest among these is the extremely limited roster of units, offering only five options to build up your army no matter which faction you pick. This is further hurt by the fact that the population cap of ten units, so you will often find yourself fighting skirmishes over full-scale battles. With a different approach, this could have benefitted the release, but Ancestors Legacy promotes the idea from the start of running a vast kingdom.

Building said kingdom itself has a drawback for every positive point, and there are times where its more obtuse elements overwhelm its brilliance. Chief among these is how you can only designate certain areas for buildings over truly controlling where they go. Even controlling and ordering about towns is relatively lacklustre, with few sure-fire ways to secure them against sieges and very simple commands. It becomes “hands off” in all the wrong ways, still requiring your full attention but offering little of the usual base building joy.

The experience of playing Ancestors Legacy is decidedly mixed, and it’s set to divide many opinions of gamers. Some might be able to appreciate its strengths enough to ignore the game’s shortcomings, but RTS enthusiasts and kingdom building veterans will likely be disappointed at what’s offered here. Give it a look, but be sure to temper your expectations.

ANCESTORS LEGACY / DEVELOPER: DESTRUCTIVE CREATIONS / PUBLISHER: 1C COMPANY / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

You have to wonder how Lovecraft might have reacted if he could see the Cthulhu Mythos now. While revered and respected for its accomplishments, the verbose author’s creations have led to plush toys, webcomics and internet memes. Also video games, such as today’s example. Fhtagn! – Tales of the Creeping Madness! is a game where you effectively play as the villains, a varied ensemble of characters set in a parody of a Lovecraftian tale. You have a set time before a cosmic horror awakens, and can even assist with its rise for your benefit.

Fhtagn! is a release very much in the same vein as The Yawhg, in that it is a very choice-driven experience with minimal mechanics. You have certain segments where you can completely alter key events or impact minor moments in the narrative, but everything will clearly fall to bits. The drive to continue stems from what sort of story you can create in the time you are given, what events you find and what outcome results from your actions. A multitude of unlockable elements are all hidden away behind certain requirements, which gives you the incentive to keep coming back and trying things differently. This further enhances an already considerable degree of replay value, and to keep exploring just what stories are hidden away within its narratives.

The only true mechanic, aside from the choice based systems, stems from the skill based menu. Various decisions can help to bolster various abilities, with everything from magic to sanity, thus furthering what you can accomplish in a single playthrough. As it has been built to be played over and over again, there are a wide variety of choices present, but Fhtagn! does suffer from a few issues you will not notice at first.

The major one among these is the co-op element. This is a brilliant choice, and many of its greatest strengths stem from just what happens when multiple individuals are experiencing several stories at once. However, this is purely limited to local co-op meaning that. Because of this, more than a few buyers will not be able to utilise the game’s strongest elements much of the time. This means that it needs to stand out on its single-player component, and because of this after a while, you are likely to notice a flaw within its storytelling. Experiences seem to favour certain paths over others, and you can find yourself repeating the same general story despite a very different starting point.

Fhtagn! is still a fantastically humorous take on Lovecraft and with a fantastical art style despite these problems, but just keep in mind that it does have its shortcomings.

FHTAGN! – TALES OF THE CREEPING MADNESS / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: DESIGN IMPS / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Nobody especially enjoys eating their greens, but Spanish developers Dolores Entertainment really seem to have quite a beef with plant-based food produce. In Ice Cream Surfer, “Evil Broccoli” has put together an army to destroy the “flavour universe” and force people to eat tasteless vegetables. We’re not sure why he wants to increase his chances of being eaten, but we’re all in favour of existing on a diet of cakes and sweets, so screw you, Broccoli.

 

Players guide one of five Ice Cream Surfers through a series of horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up levels, blasting all kinds of food items out of the sky as they hunt down the belligerent Broccoli. It’s not just green stuff, though – some of our favourite treats seem to have turned heel and joined forces with the violent vegetables. Actual French toast, bowls of ramen, and even waffles in bikinis will do their best to ruin your day. As you might expect, each level culminates in a fight against an oversized boss.

 

It’s all adorably cute and kooky, but apart from its presentation, Ice Cream Surfer doesn’t really have anything to make itself stand out from the pack. Gameplay is on the bare bones side, with each playable character only having a single weapon. They all feel different enough to make it worth trying each character out, but a little more variety wouldn’t go amiss. The usual gems and tokens can be collected to power up your weapon and build up your special attack meter, but that’s pretty much all there is to it. The one hit kill rule is in force here, and dying resets your weapon to its most basic power, which might not have been the greatest idea considering the inclusion of some unpredictable enemy behaviour and questionable hitboxes that can occasionally prove to be a little frustrating. Originally designed for short bursts of play on mobile platforms, the majority of players will be able to make their way to the end credits within an hour or so at the very most, unlocking a digital comic on the main menu filling in some of the backstory that the game itself doesn’t waste any time telling us about.

 

Fans of Parodius or Harmful Park will likely get some enjoyment out of the presentation, and we can imagine this going down really well with anyone who has youngsters in the house, especially with the inclusion of two player co-op. Ice Cream Surfer is decent enough, but all things considered, it’s maybe a little on the basic side to earn a full recommendation.

 

ICE CREAM SURFER / DEVELOPER: DOLORES ENTERTAINMENT / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH (REVIEWED), XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

With pinball’s popularity not being what it once was, there’s going to be a generation of gamers who have no idea what the fuss was all about back in the day. They’d probably be surprised to hear that there even was a fuss in the first place. Pinball was, like, ridiculously huge. There was a time when even the local takeaway would’ve had a pinball table in the corner, but at some point over the last 20 years or so they’ve fallen out of favour (pinball tables, not takeaways) and are now generally only found at conventions or one of the few dedicated arcades left in existence. Pinball Arcade serves a dual purpose, then – educating the uninitiated about the history of pinball, and providing fond memories for the nostalgic older guard.

There’s a lot more to pinball than meets the eye – yes, it’s fun enough to simply try to keep the ball in play for as long as possible, but you can make things a bit more interesting by trying to meet the various objectives for mega point scores. Deciphering the layout and objectives of a real-world table was never an easy task, but in Pinball Arcade players are given full instructions on how to make the most of each game. Between this and the advertisements and background info screens displayed while each table is loading, there’s plenty of fascinating insight on offer for even the most dedicated player.

Many of the earlier tables in this collection are rather on the sparse side, but that’s just the way things were back then. It’s easy to appreciate their inclusion both as a curiosity and as a way of preserving their historical value. As things got more advanced, the tables got more exciting and eventually grew to encompass a range of licensed tie-ins. Unfortunately, anyone joining the series at this point will find a smaller roster of tables than previous console versions, due to some behind the scenes legal issues.

The Switch edition of Pinball Arcade includes a TATE mode, allowing players to turn the screen vertically to get a better view of the table, which is a huge help as it can be a little difficult to see what’s going on in the regular landscape mode. Joycons, classic controllers and touchscreen controls are all supported, and anyone wanting to compare their high scores with other players can compete for a place on the global online leaderboards. The game also includes a challenge mode for those wanting to truly test their skills. It’s worth mentioning that the physical edition contains 11 ready to play tables, but there’s also a free version on the eShop with a single table. Both can be expanded with downloadable content, but it’s going to cost a pretty penny if you want to build up the complete collection.

This might not be the most exciting fast-paced arcade pinball video game ever made, but it’s difficult to imagine a better simulation of some of the world’s most iconic tables. We’re never going to have the funds – or the space – to collect this many genuine tables, but Pinball Arcade is the next best thing.

PINBALL ARCADE / DEVELOPER: FARSIGHT / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH (REVIEWED), XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Way in the future, mechanical Gods have ascended to rule the heavens and peaceful robots run the world. Suddenly, their entire existence is threatened when the Megabeast, ‘a moon-sized orb of flesh and countless eyes, mouths and reproductive organs, penetrates the stratosphere and spills its children unto the world’…

Many games have paid homage to Metroid, but for our money none have done so as effectively as A Robot Named Fight. While most Metroidvanias follow a linear yet labyrinthine route that encourages exploration, ARNF takes things one step further by randomly generating its layout each time you play. A roguelite Metroidvania sounds like the sort of thing that really shouldn’t work, but good God it really does!

Set in a stunning pixel art world, players control Fight as he makes his way through four distinctive environments on his quest to find the Megabeast’s lair. Certain weapons and upgrades will be needed to navigate obstacles or unlock through certain doors, but with each run being entirely different from the last you’re never sure what you might come across, so every adventure is completely different. Adding to the replayability is the game achievement system which is linked to unlockable items – defeating bosses, reaching certain locations, and performing various other tasks for the first time will always add something useful to the item pool which may (or may not) be picked up in future runs.

Killing any of the suitably meaty alien enemies rewards Fight with health, power for additional weapons, or scrap that can be spent on additional weapons and items if you’re able to find one of the many in-game shopkeepers. Further upgrades can be found hidden within the environment itself, giving players a reason to pay attention to their surroundings. Amassing the best upgrades and weapons will always be your main concern, as you won’t last long without the necessary equipment. If Fight dies, it’s game over and you start again from scratch with a new robot. On the plus side, if you feel like you’ve been particularly successful in a certain run, the game provides seeds, basically passwords that allow you to reload the exact same layout for another attempt. A word of warning though – this will disable achievements and item unlocks, so you won’t be earning anything useful!

On a technical level, the fact that every single aspect of ARNF was completely developed by one single person is absolutely mind-blowing. It’s difficult to fathom how much effort has been poured into the game, and we certainly appreciate the lengths developer Matt Bitner has gone to. Attempting to create something like this alongside a whole team of programmers would probably be seen as a brave move, but doing it alone – and resulting in one of the most addictive side-scrollers we’ve seen in years – is truly an outstanding achievement indeed.

If you’re into retro games, roguelites, Metroidvanias, or any combination of all three, we can’t recommend ARNF highly enough. It looks great, sounds great (the main theme in particular wouldn’t sound out of place on a prime-era Alan Silvestri soundtrack), and plays great, and the more time you put into it, the better it gets. We tried really hard to find any downsides, but even after 15 or so hours there just doesn’t seem to be any. As a retro-inspired explore ’em up, we’re pretty certain it’s totally flawless. ARNF totally succeeds in paying homage to an all-time classic while reinvigorating a genre that’s been in need of freshening up for a while now. A thoroughly memorable adventure that’s sure to keep you going back for one more try.

A ROBOT NAMED FIGHT! / DEVELOPER: MATT BITNER GAMES / PLATFORM: PC, SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

One of several B-tier releases pushed by Square Enix in the past few years, Forgotton Anne is a work from another age. It’s more akin to the experimental releases of the original Playstation, or when Broken Sword was at its zenith. Yet, despite being another action-platformer, it nevertheless proves to be a welcome breath of fresh air amid this month’s release list.

The premise is certainly one of the much more interesting ones than the usual hero fights dark lord story. You play as Anne, an Enforcer in a world called the Forgotten Lands. It’s a world here lost items of all kinds gain a life and sentience of their own, hoping that they will be remembered and return to the real world.

The story is the sort which delves just deep enough to answer a few questions while still leaving a sense of mystery about the setting. You learn the essentials, how this society operates, its factions and the rules which govern it, but it never offers more than is needed. Because of this it offers more than enough room to keep throwing surprises at you, both in terms of possible enemies and narrative twists. Many of the sentient items reshape themselves to better reflect their self-awareness and there’s no end of creativity in terms of what they might show up as. It only further enhances the melancholic atmosphere of the setting, which is both wondrous and tragic in its nature.

The visuals are further supported by both a talented voice cast and a number of animated cutscenes, but the core gameplay doesn’t quite live up to this. It’s certainly not bad by any means, but it doesn’t fully stand out. The platforming sequences, for one thing, are slow and fairly methodical over some of the faster paced sequences you might desire. Many place a greater emphasis on navigation and planning over reflexes, but many segments have an extremely lethargic pace as a result. Equally, many puzzle sequences vary in terms of quality. Some are ingeniously put together, while others can leave you resorting to trying everything until you get the answer. The fact that one such moment appears early on is especially frustrating, and it’s compounded by the level of backtracking sometimes required. These aren’t inherently bad, but they’re usually competently executed as oposed to being brilliant brain teasers.

Forgotton Anne is a game where the main appeal is the concepts and visual execution. While the core mechanics are interesting, and show some signs of innovation, it’s the story and animated sequences which truly stand out here. If you enjoy the premise, aesthetic and have some familiarity with the genre then definitely give this one a look.

FORGOTTON ANNE / DEVELOPER: THROUGHLINE GAMES / PUBLISHER: SQUARE ENIX / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Medium’s have their superficially beautiful creations every few years. You know the kind, the ones which have a wonderful visual aesthetic, characters and score but start to fall apart once you scratch the surface. From Ridley Scott’s Legend to Aliens: Colonial Marines, they vary both in quality and extremes and, unfortunately, Omensight is another of these. While it’s certainly not a bad product, it’s not a very good game either.

Promoting itself as an Action Murder-Mystery game, Omensight sees you playing as a mythical warrior attempting to stop the apocalypse. Using the ability to go over the same short period of time over and over again, your job is to solve the murder of the Godless-Priestess and eventually use your growing abilities to emerge victorious. So, it’s Groundhog Day as directed by Guillermo del Toro.

The idea is an inspired one, and while it has been attempted a few times before, Omensight attempts to put a new spin on things with the chance to return to a hub world after each timeline. From there you can repeat certain sequences, gain abilities and then backtrack to other eras in order to emerge stronger at other points. There are multiple opportunities to interact with characters differently, use abilities to alter events or approach instances in certain ways.

The story itself is a strong one, and it’s one of the few releases where you really can keep trying only to see new results emerge from your actions. The fact that this comes hand in hand with a strong and well written ensemble of characters only encourages you to see events through to the end, even after multiple failures. While it can be repetitive, the moments where you keep asking “Well, what if I do this?” is enough to keep you coming back. Visually the game is quite spectacular atop of this, utilising a mixture of semi-cel shaded visuals and Zelda style aesthetics to give the world life.

Yet, as with a few high tier indie releases, the problem once again lies in the core mechanics. The story is brilliantly executed, but the mechanical choices and design elements leave something to be desired. It’s an issue which is especially evident with a number of obtuse choices, or lack of what should be an obvious asset to the player. For example, there’s no option to quickly quit the day you are on and return to the hub area should you make a mistake. If you screw up early on, you simply need to go through with it until you can start over once again. The problem itself is only further exaggerated by the fact that the story progression is often artificially gated off, leaving you little room to go back, and you can find yourself easily missing things in a simple effort to press the narrative forward.

The mechanical blind spots of the time travelling mechanic would be problematic enough, but the combat also leaves something to be desired. While fast, fluidly executed and requiring more skill than the typical Arkham Asylum fighting system, you can easily get yourself stuck in odd places. Dodging at the wrong point can make you end up trapped behind scenery or even between two static objects, often forcing you to restart entirely. This happens more than you might think thanks to a few awkward camera placements.

There is no denying that Omensight is a truly beautiful game and its ideas justify a purchase, but behind the aesthetic choices, it has the depth of a puddle. As such, if you can stomach such limitations in the name of a good story then give it a look, but if you desire something more substantial then wait until this goes on sale.

OMENSIGHT / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: SPEARHEAD GAMES / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW