Never Alone - Review (PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game)

This month we have another wintery game that explores ancient folklore only this time we’ll be delving into the beliefs of the indigenous Alaskan community, the Iñupiat. ‘Never Alone’ is one of those games that test the traditional boundaries of what a video game should be as it really is a vehicle for telling a larger story, one of the Iñupiat people and it goes about this in such a heart-warming way that it’s difficult not to enjoy it. The game itself is designed for two players, though can be played solo, and slots neatly into the category of a puzzle platforming game where you must navigate levels by controlling both a young girl and her arctic fox companion.

Developer: Upper One Games and E-Line Media
Genre: Puzzle platformer
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Release date: 18th November 2014
ESRB: Unrated (mild threat)

The story of ‘Never Alone’ is presented as the kind of tale that an elder passes on to his or her grandchildren and even a few of the cutscenes are in a kind of scrimshaw style as though you are watching a living, breathing wall of cave art. It’s simple narrative that follows a young girl, Nuna, to find the cause of an unnatural blizzard with the help of an arctic fox whom she meets after narrowing escaping an angry ice bear. Together the two friends set out to find the source of an eternal blizzard which threatens the survival of not only the Iñupiat people but everything they have ever known. The story itself is pleasant, full of heart and somewhat magical in an ancient sort of way which really ties into the sense of the tale being told by an indigenous elder. What I particularly enjoyed about the narrative was that it offered up an insight into a culture that I was unfamiliar with and provided me with plenty of information in the form of cultural insight videos. These videos played like clips from a documentary and would discuss the relevant scenario, character or set piece that I had just encountered. Watching them as and when you unlock them can be rather distracting from the game however and I would recommend waiting until you had finished the game before going through them. They were a genuinely interesting watch though and you’d be missing out on some really interesting information by bypassing them entirely as they tend to make everything feel much more wholesome and real.

The game itself is quite clearly designed with two players in mind but, as I only have one controller, I only have a single player experience to talk about. That said, quite a lot of the game requires you to coordinate the movements of both the fox and Nuna so they work together in harmony but, with unpredictable AI, this is not always possible when you’re playing by yourself. Occasionally the character you are not controlling may perform actions that lead to their death and often they struggle to keep up with your pace which, inevitably, also leads to their death. The game is also slightly let down by the controls which can often feel sluggish, unresponsive and awkward to get right. Your ranged weapon, the bola, for instance can be very difficult to aim properly and this simply adds an additional problem to an already bothersome control system. On the positive side the mechanics of the game are pretty solid and generally revolves around a few basic ideas that become increasingly more complex as the game goes on. Whilst coming up against enemies is standard gaming-fare there are some interesting features such as the winter wind which can be both a blessing and an obstacle depending on where you’re trying to go or what you’re trying to do. Spirits that inhabit the game are similarly two faced and whilst there are plenty of good spirits who will help you there are also the not so good ones who may whisk you away at a moment’s notice. 

The game’s main premise however is the partnership between Nuna and Fox which is where some brilliant co-op gameplay would have come into play had I had another controller. Whilst Nuna can drag heavy objects and use the bola as a means of retrieving objects or clearing obstacles Fox’s expertise lies in his connection with the spiritual world, allowing him to work with the spiritual manifestations of animals called ‘loons’. Navigating levels tends to require you to switch constantly between the characters so that they may help each other along and there’s enough to interact with for this gameplay to not be boring or repetitive. However, the vast majority of the game does not have the same complexity that the final levels do which manifests not so much as a difficulty curve but more a great restriction on gameplay. In later levels your control over Fox is extended and you can do much more with him and, whilst the scenarios tend to be similar such as the chase scenes, everything is just so much more fun and challenging. It’s just a shame that it takes so long for the game to build up to this balance of play and before you know it the game has finished just as it felt like it was really picking up speed. What I am utterly grateful for after playing a certain similar game was the checkpoint system of ‘Never Alone’ as whilst death may happen quite frequently, dodgy companions aside, you are never put too far back and it never feels as though you are constantly retracing your steps.

What I absolutely adore about this game though is the art style which is so beautifully minimalistic with its soft focus and hazy wash of colours as though everything is thinly veiled with snow. Murky blues, whites and greys do wonders to make Nuna stand out in her fiercely bold furs whilst her Arctic Fox companion is both separate and a part of the frozen tundra that surrounds him. The simplicity but detail of the animations are also absolutely stunning and little idle animations like Nuna warming her hands or Fox pawing at the ground add a little subtle personality to their characters. The wind is flawlessly drawn and animated and you can visually feel the might of it as it throws Nuna backwards across the screen or sails across her shoulders when she’s ducked down, shielding herself from its buffeting power. The soundtrack as well is extremely well implemented, a soft chorus of piano that is only broken up by the shouts and grunts of Nuna and Fox as they struggle on with their task and overall the music has a very subtle and calming effect on the entire game. 

The prevalent issues that are present in ‘Never Alone’ are hardly even applicable at the moment as the developer has already announced that patches for both the PC version and the consoles will be released shortly. This is clearly a game with both substance and style and my only remaining gripe is that it takes far too long for the real action to get going and, with that in mind, the game is rather short. This aside it’s a wondrous little indie game that is well suited for modern day gamers who enjoy simplistic yet meaningful games with the capacity for a strong local co-op experience. Visually the game is stunning and I adored the focus on learning about Alaskan folklore as it is quite a rare culture to hear anything about, particularly in games. Treat yourself to something a little different this Christmas and check this out if it sounds like something you’d enjoy.

The Good:

• Lovely depictation and explanations of Iñupiat mythology 
• Adorable foxes always rank highly in my books
• Very well thought out narrative spoken in the indigenous language
• Engaging characters that develop a lovely relationship with one another
• Pretty solid puzzles that require some thought
• Stunning graphics and soundtrack
• Nicely animated for the most part
• Solid mechanics, particularly like the application of the wind and spirits

The Bad:

• Later levels much more enjoyable than the rest of the game 
• AI and ranged weapon issues (that are currently being patched)
• Polar bear has some odd animations sometimes

The Score: 9/10

Final thoughts: “A genuinely intriguing game that makes me cold just thinking about it, or maybe it’s because I don’t have the heating on and it’s December. I loved the whole concept of this game and knowing that the vast majority of things I found wrong with it are being patched makes me truly appreciate the developer’s dedication to this game. I won’t forget this one.”

Read More

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) - #1: Watch Dogs

Watching the release trailer for ‘Watch Dogs’ was exciting, I had remembered its reveal at E3 2012 and that futuristic characterization of Chicago looked and sounded stunning, imaginative, game changing. As the release date crept closer the hype didn't die down; it intensified and I too was excited, I was expecting something along the lines of 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' I guess but with a bit more 'Grand Theft Auto' thrown in for good measure. There was to be an open world; that part was important. Open world settings all the rage right now and if your game lacks one then prepare for criticism as its such a commonplace practice now in this genre of games that there's simply no reason not to. The hacking spin was, of course, extremely important as well as there's simply not enough good quality, intelligent futuristic games out there on the market right now so 'Watch Dogs' proved to be a valuable addition to the genre. So, did it live up to the hype? Unsurprisingly, no. In typical modern AAA game fashion it was little more than a huge wave of anticipation followed by the sound of lots of games clicking into consoles, boot screens, updates, some silence as players had a little whirl in their new playground followed by a gradual feeling of, 'well this is a mediocre experience' coupled with an intense desire to find something positive to defend their pre-ordering decision. Why is this? So many reasons, none of which make this a bad game (I cannot stress that enough for these posts) but plenty of which make it a disappointing game.

#1 Watch Dogs

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action/Adventure 
Release date: 27th May 2014
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ESRB: M - Mature

So after all that disk tray clicking and riding the hype train for two solid years what I ended up getting was something that looked pretty, though unworthy of a 'next gen' console, but which was weighed down by a predictable storyline, bland characters and a half-assed attempt at integrating hacking into a traditional action game. You play as Aiden Pearce, who turns out to be the most boring character ever to be conceived, who is doing all of this illegal stuff as a revenge mission because his niece was killed and sister kidnapped. In terms of storyline, that’s about it. It’s all extremely generic and clichéd and despite the rather disasterous situation poor Aiden's been put in somehow remains  completely unemotional. Perhaps it's the diabolical awful voice acting that's most noticeable in Aiden as his droning, stereotypically hoarse 'tough-guy' voice is simply a chore to listen to and does very little to offer him any character or emotional development. 

Voice acting aside, Aiden himself is a relatively poor protagonist and whilst I'm not getting into the debate of 'he's like Batman because he's on a revenge mission and is a criminal to stop criminals, and has a hoarse voice' I will point out that he has no redeeming qualities. He's an incredibly inconsistent character and never owns up to or accepts the terrible things he's actually doing to people resulting in a you having to play as someone who is formally known as a 'dickhead'. Whilst I accept that sandbox games tend to leave moral choices to the player this is no 'Skyrim' or 'Dragon Age' type game; Aiden Pearce is a character already conceived with scripted sequences and set choices, he has a backstory, sort of, a motive for his actions, in a sense, and a personality, if you can call it that. Games like Uncharted dealt with the moral inconsistency in a pretty simple way; they ignored the rising kill count and just gunned on with the storyline as though you'd never mowed down those hundreds of innocents. I don't like that, but you know, fair enough, you can't control a player's actions. Some games like 'GTA' and 'Saints Row' just let you loose on the world and don't apologize for how much of a sociopath you are; that's also fair enough, they leash those psychotic actions in and make them their own and that's kind of what I wanted 'Watch Dogs' to do, but it didn't; it copped out of it. So whilst you're running around as a vigilante, becoming more of a mass murdering monster hacker rather than a force for good, the game spends the rest of its time playing catch up and trying to account for why you're doing all these things. If I was supposed to pity Aiden for bad things happening around him, I didn't. He's pretty much impossible to love and even though his actions often turn out justified you only tend to find that out after you've already killed someone making it conveniently ok now. Well, that's not good enough really, nobody goes around just murdering people based on hearsay and scant details, nobody except Aiden and, for a vigilante, that makes him a pretty unprofessional one. Worse still, the guy doesn't even enjoy himself when he was doing all of these bad things so you can't pass him off as a regular video game sociopath and, whilst he doesn't enjoy it, he doesn't hate it either. When I said Aiden Pearce was the most boring video character I meant it; he has no personality, not even a negative one, there's just nothing going on in that little head of his except a serious revenge plot that never comes up for a breather.

That's another thing; this is a serious, serious game. So serious it's boring and whilst I understand it's a serious topic with serious consequences and serious things going on... there's a reason why, in the 'Assassins Creed' series, nobody liked Altair and everybody loved Ezio; he had a goddamned personality and a sense of humour to boot. I'm going to leave Aiden alone for a bit because he's had enough stick from me and instead I'll focus on the 'glued together with string and cheap sellotape' storyline. 'Watch Dogs' is a game that takes itself too seriously and the very least I was expecting from it was some substance that justified the setting and premise the developers had been cawing about this whole time, but no. Maybe I was being naive or expecting too much but I was genuinely looking forward to a game that grabbed an extremely important political issue by the horns and tackled it in a way that was well written, well thought out and well researched. Mass surveillance and living inside a society that is terrified of being observed, especially with the frequency of hacking scares and institutes like Anonymous should have been enough fodder for a fantastic and insightful game. If you want it to be an action/adventure game with a shit tonne of shooting and driving then fine, that's ok, you can have you fun with it but remember what makes a game memorable and stand apart from the competition. If you're having trouble remembering I'll give you a hint; it's not six shirts all layered on top of one another,  and constantly being on your mobile phone, even in the presence of friends and family. 

Watch Dogs never quite gets to where its going, it has a good idea but the writing is terribly weak and unfounded in reality, its one of those games where it's really fun as long as you're not looking for anything with meaning or personality. There are plenty of minor irritants in the game such as a lack of jumping, no, really and the inability to shoot whilst in a vehicle, although considering how difficult it is to effectively drive what feels like a metal skip on roads covered in black ice it probably would be impossible to shoot and drive at the same time anyway. Strangely, you also cannot attack pedestrians with melee attacks except a scripted animation of a takedown where you tackle someone, this would be reasonable if you couldn’t due this due to a ‘don’t beat up innocents’ rule but you can shoot them to death and with almost no consequence as police presence is extremely limited. Strangely, the police AI is also something to be wary of as they'll always turn up with a shoot to kill mentality and will never attempt to arrest you and, if you happen to see a civilian commit a crime, they'll never bother attempting to do anything about it. Frustratingly, whilst the police have absolutely no way of entering the water they do have the ability to locate you even when you're neatly tucked away behind several walls in what was, presumably, an impenetrable hiding fortress. 

Now, whilst the game is by no means short it may as well be because after a few hours you’ll have seen everything there is to be seen in terms of gameplay and missions. As if that's not bad enough there are no more skills to utilize and you're left to trek diligently onwards through a deplorable storyline as you're left with very little reason to continue playing unless you're a completionist. What this necessarily results in is a game which is extremely easy as, having unlocked all of your potential abilities, you’re now incredibly overpowered and fighting against easy enemies for the rest of the game. In order to upgrade your equipment you must procure yourself some money but that too is extremely simplistic as you can hack approximately 25% of all NPCs and quickly acquire masses of wealth with nothing to spend it on. Similarly, whilst I was expecting a glorious, sprawling open world of future day Chicago where I could go anywhere, do anything, hack everyone, what I was left with were very few and limited opportunities to actually be the magnificent hacker I supposedly was and whilst the city is certainly an open world experience, it’s not a very interesting one due to the lack of interaction. 

Watch Dogs is essentially only successful because it's a laugh. There's not much depth to it, the side missions are extremely irritating and repetitive though are essential for leveling up so you just kind of have to put up with it. There are some pretty annoying mini-games that are surprisingly frequent but tolerable but overall the game is lacking in personality, originality and intelligence. It feels as though 'Watch Dogs' has picked up loads of gameplay elements from a lot of other games, mashed them all together in a new setting, put in some awful driving mechanics and thrown in a lazy explanation for why you're on a hell sent vengeance mission where you can do whatever the hell you want. On a positive note, the game is sort of fun if you can get beyond all of its negative points and if you enjoy messing about and don't care about the substance behind it all then it's a good game for that purpose. But for a game that’s supposedly digging at the political issue of living in a surveillance state it comes across from the point of view of a child who only understands it as a way of reading bits of information about people and stealing their money. All in all, the writers appeared to have either played safe to the point of boring or they cobbled together something at the last minute and given this game was announced two years ago and was pushed back a further 6/7 months that seems fairly unlikely. What this game boils down to is your usual sub-standard action game that's all bark and no bite; nothing really grabbed me, nothing made it stand out and whilst I would play it if I was really tired and just wanted to dick about for a bit I would never sit down, engage with it, and love it to the end. It's just not that good of a game. 

The Good:

• Some fun gameplay elements
• Nice setting; futuristic Chicago is very cool
• The open world setting is good, though didn't take advantage of its setting
• Graphics are decent, could have been better for PS4/Xbox One though
• Nice mission variety
• Good stealth elements
• Understated but effective skill tree
• Very good animations
• Fantastic soundtrack
• Enemy randomization offers up new experiences

The Bad:

• Aiden Pearce
• Money is far too easy to obtain and becomes meaningless
• The driving is awful, unable to shoot from a vehicle
• No storyline, diaboloical writing, flimsy
• Terrible voice acting
• Side missions are irritating
• The game is both far too serious yet unintelligent
• Morality is ignored then scraped back to no avail
• The hacking is quite tedious and not very dynamic
• Police AI is irrational
• Gunplay overshadows the hacking aspects
• Dodgy checkpoints, a lot of mission restarts, lots of insta-fail missions.

The Score: 7/10

Final thoughts: "It's surprisingly average for an action game but seems to think it's better than it is, that's probably the advertising budget right there. Aiden is a chore to work with, I have never hated a character as much as this guy, apart from that guy from Soul Suspect... Simply, this feels like a game that any developer could make, change a few elements and re-release it as the next big thing. Sadly, this game just doesn't impact on me in the slightest."

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

Read More

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) #2: Thief

The game that has so far proven to be the second most disappointing game of the year was 'Thief', a much anticipated revamp of the cult classic series that was kicking about in the late 90s and early 2000s. Whilst some praised its stealth gameplay and graphics, not all were as easily impressed and fans of the original series were unsurprisingly unsatisfied with initial details such as the replacement of the protagonists voice actor and an unimaginative storyline. Here I'll look into what made this game so disappointing and what has rendered this game worthy of this placement in this list. 
 

#2: Thief

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Genre: Stealth
Release date: February 25h 2014
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.
ESRB: M - Mature

In the end, 'Thief' turned out to be a watered down clone of 'Dishonoured' that insulted fans of the original series and bored those new to the game. I’m of the latter group; I never played the original Thief but knew of it and knew how much beloved it was but, without playing it, I can only talk about this 2014 revamp from my direct experience. To begin with, it doesn’t feel particularly up to date as everything is extremely linear and limited whilst I was expecting a more fluid, open world environment with some minor limitations. Worse still, the environments you’re limited to are extremely bland with hardly anything to interact with and without much room for experimentation leaving you very little point in trying to be creative about the way in which you go about things. Garrett, a character with very little personality and shoddy voice acting, is supposed to have a huge variety of gadgets and tools that you may select from and let loose upon the world but there’s very little opportunity to use them to their full potential. Almost every single gadget may only be used in one particular way so, again, your creativity is squashed and your game experience forced through a narrow tunnel of ‘the way it’s supposed to be done’. This claustrophobic feeling of restriction extends into the main missions where everything is rigid, linear and scripted which is strangely at odds with the more flexible and ‘thank god I can breathe for a moment’ style of the side missions. The side missions, though better than the main ones, still are by no means perfect as everything is split into segments due to the huge amount of loading screens you’ll encounter that totally destroys any illusion of an open world game. 
 

I haven’t actually mentioned the entire point of the game yet and that’s being a Thief, shock horror surprise, so you’d expect a pretty robust thieving and looting system that would justify its position as a strong, substantial stealth game. Well prepare to be disappointed, some more, as Thief is less about being a professional thief and more about picking up any old shit you find lying around that may be of worth. It’s rather like Garrett has found a way to curb his uncontrollable kleptomania by taking it on as a profession as rather than saving up all his skills and energy for one big heist he tends to just grab anything within reach, particularly low valued items that nobody else would bother themselves with. Once again, the influence of ‘Dishonoured’ reared its head as whenever you pick something up its converted into money leaving you with grabbing bits worth 3 gold, 5 gold, 7 gold and so on. At this point, Thief’s lack of individual identity is becoming self-evident and you’re probably wondering what sets it apart from the crowd. Well, not much actually. The storyline is very longwinded and seems to just go on and on endlessly with no sign of stopping and, when it finally gets there, the ending is weak and unsatisfying. 

As a next gen console game it’s also graphically inferior with nothing particularly attractive or noteworthy and the overall appearance is simply bland, the controls are clunky and slow leaving you hobbling rather than sleuthing and the FPS is diabolical with long loading times and plenty of stuttering during cinematics and periods of lots of activity such as combat. Oh and by the way, the combat too is just like the rest of the game; slow, irritating, restrictive and clunky. It’s as though the developers attempted to put in some action game features and just ended up with something that was a mix of awkward button smashing, poorly animated takedowns and, due to the loading screens, almost no way to flee effectively from a situation. In fact, the only redeeming feature about the combat system in ‘Thief’ is that you can bypass it entirely and opt for sneaking around enemies instead of confronting them head on. Overall, Thief is unable to live up to the expectation of becoming the next big stealth game and just feels far too restrictive and uninspired. It’s boring, bland, slow and with very little to lift it up from a pit of poor storytelling, poor gameplay and a poor engine. If you are a diehard lover of this genre of game then I’m sure you’ll find some way of getting some fun out of it solely because it’s a new game but I’d recommend waiting until the price drops first as, in this form, it’s simply not worth your money. 

The Good:

• Some fairly entertaining moments
• Can be quite cinematic, when it wants to be. 
• It's a stealth game and the industry need more stealth games
• The graphics are ok, but not for a next-gen game.

The Bad:

• Substandard AI
• Set paths leaving you very room to move
• Awful voice acting and lip syncing
• Agonizingly boring storyline
• Clunky controls
• Very poor FPS especially during busy periods and cutscenes
• Weapons and gadgets offer little room for creativity
• Garrett is a pretty bad thief; more of a klepto than a professional
• Very little interaction in the environment
• Not actually an open world experience
• Spits on the name of the original series.

The Score: 3/10

Final thoughts: "Thief is a decidedly unworthy addition to the cult classic series of games and will disappoint not only long standing fans but those new to the series as well. Whilst it's a reasonably alright stealth game it's not a patch on 'Dishonoured' and lacks some core fundamentals of a good stealth game such as intelligent AI and flexibility in what you can do and where you can go."  

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

Read More

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far) - #5: Destiny

2014 was set to be a year of fantastic, next gen games to celebrate the release of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 and whilst there are plenty of new additions that are worth wasting your weekends on, there are plenty that failed to live up to expectations. In this countdown of the 5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 so far I spell out the drawbacks, point out the restrictions and remind us all that with big budgets and fantastic advertising there's still plenty of opportunity for hyped up games to fall short of their target. Consider these 5 short reviews, released individually, of some of the biggest games to hit in 2014 that simply weren't as good as everyone was expecting them to be, starting with one of the most advertised and hyped up games we've seen for a long time; 'Destiny'. 

#5. Destiny
 
Developer: Bungie
Genre: First Person Shooter, Action, RPG
Release date: September 9th 2014
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360
ESRB: T - Teen

Whilst Destiny is by no means a terrible game it still did not manage to live up to the expectations that players expected of a game with a $500M budget and the most prolific video game advertising of the year. As the release date snuck closer and closer everybody descended into a full scale, frenzied hype that this was the game that would define a next gen console and, when it was released, you could almost hear the sighs of disillusionment sweep across the country. I was expecting a game that was something a lot deeper and more fulfilling than Destiny turned out to be and, even with its non-existent storyline, you would expect its actual gameplay features to be well thought out. As it turns out, Destiny’s primary redeeming factors is it looks pretty and has a nicely implemented co-op experience in that there are plenty of dungeons, patrols and raids that you can experience with your friends. On the other hand, the deathmatch multiplayer mode feels suspiciously similar to ‘Halo 4’s version of PVP with very little chance to employ strategies and, due to everybody having their own guns and power ups, it’s unbalanced and unfair from the very start of the match. What with this and the reliance on good old twitch shooting but with controls that are significantly more sluggish than better games such as ‘Titanfall’ you’re unlikely to stick it out long enough to get good at it. Quite simply, there are better games with better PVP features and there’s nothing about this mode to make you rely on Destiny for your shooter fix. You really begin to notice Destiny’s drawbacks the more time you spend in the game and whilst the initial experience is overwhelming you quickly realize that everything feels very constricted, repetitive and shallow in its underlying features. You will never want to actively seek out missions after the first few as they are all very much a rehash of the same basic structure where, ‘go to planet, kill things down linear pathways, deploy robot at station, kill more things, kill boss, go home’ is all you have to look forward to. Except these incredibly dull missions there is very little filler in the game and whilst I was expecting a thriving world full of things to do, the game world itself feels very empty and underdeveloped. Having become used to the thriving worlds of Borderlands there is simply not enough going on around you as you travel from one side of the map to the other and with very little loot to grab there’s not much reason to explore anyway. Worse still, the game world is not as open world as I expected it to be and instead feels like a compilation of seperate areas rather than new and interesting planets to explore. This is also combined with agonizingly long loading screens between areas where you are forced to tackle this feeling of disappointment on a frequent basis, having nothing else to do during these periods of inactivity.

Though characters and storyline may not be a genre of some fans of the FPS genre it’s a concern for me and the utterly non-existent storyline is something that continues to grate on me as the game wears on. Worse, the aliens have absolutely no personality and are essentially just there to be killed whereas I prefer to have enemies that aren’t little more than cannon-fodder. Strangely, the AI of your opponents is significantly lacking and it's most notable when you're fighting a boss whose sole 'tactic' is to just, well, shoot you. They have no special moves and you require very little strategy to take them down and, without any unique battle features, you may as well be fighting the same boss over and over again. The lack of customization options is also rather irritating where many similar games have a treasure trove worth of guns and vehicles but Destiny is very limited in what it can give to you so there’s very little chance to play about with different configurations. The levelling system is very grindy which would be alright if all the other problems in the game didn’t exist and the missions were worth pursuing to gains some experience but, since they’re not, it feels a great deal like an all work, no reward kind of set up. If you’re looking for another Halo style game from Bungie you’ll be disappointed; the aliens you encounter have no personality and are essentially just there to die, there’s little variety in vehicles and weapons, the storyline is basically non-existent and the missions are repetitive. Whilst there are many positives it’s simply not enough to elevate the game to its pre-supposed status as the next 10/10, 5 star, it’s so amazing, game so I’ll end it by saying this; people compare this game to 'Halo' constantly and whilst there’s a lot of back and forth about how they’re similar or dissimilar all you need to know is this; 'Halo' is better.  

Up Next: #4: The Elder Scrolls Online

The Good:

• Decent co-op experience
• Beautiful graphics
• Amazing music
• Can be fun, if you're easily amused
• Fun if you enjoy multiplayer shooting stuff with no other content to enjoy
• Potential to be updated later down the line.

The Bad:

• Poor AI, enemies have zero personality, lack of enemy diversity
• Bosses are predictable with no special moves
• Not really an open world experience - lots of loading screens
• Repetitive missions are extremely boring
• Game world feels empty, bleak and desolate
• Non-existent storyline
• So much grinding
• Lack of single player offline experience
• Multiplayer PVP unbalanced and offers little opportunity for strategy
• No personality

The Score: 5/10 

Final thoughts: "Very undeveloped, feels empty, not sure what the point is in playing this game over every other FPS ever as there's very little originality, if any at all."

5 Most Disappointing Games of 2014 (So far)

• #5: Destiny 
• #4: Elder Scrolls Online 
• #3: The Sims 4 
• #2: Thief 
• #1: Watch Dogs

Read More

Murdered: Soul Suspect - Quick Review (PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game)

Exploring the shadowy afterlife of a recently murdered detective is something quite unforgettable but not for all the right reasons. Murdered: Soul Suspect is a mystery adventure game where, after witnessing his own brutal murder, Ronan O’Connor finds himself locked in the ghostly afterlife with some newly acquired supernatural abilities and a mystery to solve. 

Developer: Airtight games
Genre: Action-adventure/mystery
Release:AQ date: June 6th 2014 (JP: July 17th 2014, NA: June 3rd 2014)
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

As you prowl the dark, damp streets of a beautifully detailed town called Salem you’ll attempt to bring O’Connor’s mysterious, masked killer to justice. It’s a tentatively emotional game with a strong, powerful storyline and some very interesting gameplay elements in the way of Connor’s unique, unearthly abilities. Walking through walls, possessing the living and reading their minds all become a natural part of your investigation yet it doesn't take long to discover that these ghost abilities are a lot more scripted and limited than orginally portrayed.
 

Unfortunately this feeling of limitation is persistent as you explore a game which feels painfully unfinished and, overall, just a little neglected. Whilst the environments are striking and extremely detailed they’re let down by how often they’re reused during separate side missions. Whilst the game tends to come across as an open world romp it quickly becomes apparent that there's a lot less to explore and, even if you did, there's not much to find anyway. The game features a fair few side missions but these quickly run out about midway through the game leaving you with nothing else to do but doggedly pursue the main storyline as you try and ignore characters repeating phrases like, ‘Sorry, can’t help you’ when you attempt to talk to them. 

During the missions themselves the writing tends to be quite poor with a lot of inconsistencies and some rather poor characterizations, for example one woman, with no mental health concerns, promptly committed suicide simply due to the suspicion her boyfriend was cheating on her. O'Connor tends to be generally quite thick and, even when things are obvious, he still murmurs to himself in utter confusion about what's going on. The search for clues too is agonizingly boring as things loll about in plain sight and, when trying to piece together evidence by selecting one of several options on screen there's very little challenge as any wrongly selected pieces of evidence just grey out. You can complete every mission through trial and elimination and, in cases where speaking with witnesses, there's no option to slyly question them and usually asking them plain outright is enough to solve the case. There’s this general sensation that the developers never quite got around to implementing as many side mysteries or free roaming aspects of the game as they’d have liked to and, for the missions which are present, they're all rather low quality in and of themselves. 

The enemies that you encounter start off as rather threatening and a little spooky but as soon as you realize how generic and easy to avoid they are then any lingering fear is quickly snuffed out. Whilst you can directly confront them there's alternatively a plethora of hiding spots called soul residue that, by slipping inside them, renders you completely invisible to any demons mooching about. Now, there's nothing wrong with hiding spots but these are excessive in number and, besides, there's no way to be discovered once you're nestled inside one anyway. The lack of variation in enemy encounters and the enemies themselves renders them little more than an annoyance than something challenging or eerie but, by this point, you begin to wonder if there’s anything worth fighting for anyway.

The painfully short length of the game doesn’t help matters as the entire campaign will take up a very modest 10 hours of your time with the potential to be even shorter if you’re not up for exploring everything. With only one difficulty level, one which feels incredibly easy, there’s not much room for re-playability either so in this sense some players may find it unfulfilling as there’s not much room for improvement. The complete lack of challenge and the fact that you cannot ramp it up a notch is rather damming but there is some thought put into how players can get more hours of the game. In a rather distinctive ‘L.A Noire’ fashion you can earn percentages and badges at the end of every mission based on how many clues and pieces of evidence that you find, in this sense if you find that you missed some evidence and only achieved 80% on a mission you may attempt to retry it though, truthfully, there seems little point in doing so. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and mostly ends up being a hunt for clues in various, similarly designed buildings before watching cutscenes. 

Murdered: Soul Suspect has a brilliant storyline that never reveals too much at once and which is, right up until the end, gripping. The voice acting is superb and the graphics are bleak but atmospherically so. Unfortunately, that’s all it really has going for it as the characters are lacking in personality and the game, whilst boasting style, lacks substance. Even O’Connor, the one person who should at least have something going on, has very little personality and not particularly likeable due to his rather stereotypical persona. It’s a shame because this game has a brilliant premise and could have been so much more but it seems as though it’s unfinished with gaping holes littering every aspect whether that’s a lack of dialogue with NPCs or a lack of variation in side mysteries. If the game as longer with much more content then it would have been a fantastic edition to the much unexplored territory of mystery detective games. L.A Noire this is not and, currently, it’s far too overpriced for what is essentially a 5 – 10 hour game of scripted repetition.

The Good:

• Voice acting is top quality
• Lovely, detailed environments
• Powers acquired gradually
• Great premise of solving your own murder 
• Gripping storylin, a little disturbing

The Bad:

• Very scripted feel
• Lack of content 
• Repetative missions 
• Easily defeated, generic enemies 
• Quite buggy (as of July 2014) 
• Extremely short
• Side missions poorly written
• O'Connor painfully thick
• Characters lack personality

The Score: 4/10

Final thoughts: “Soul Suspect appears to be lacking some soul, I’m very disappointed as this could have been something really quite special.”

Read More

Outlast DLC: Whistleblower - Full Review (+ Trailer) (PS4, Xbox One and PC game)

I thought that Outlast was already as bone-chilling, nightmare fuelling, panic inducing scary as it could get; I was wrong, I was so, so wrong. Outlast’s DLC ‘Whistleblower’ is more than just your standard DLC; it’s not one of those enjoyable but ineffectual additions that rides in on the back of an already successful game, oh no, ‘Whistleblower’ is by and large a whole new chapter in Red Barrel’s manifesto of fear.

Developer: Red Barrels

Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: September 4, 2013 (PC), Feburary 5th 2014 (PS4), June 18th 2014 (Xbox one)
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One

ESRB: M - Mature

Outlast is a game that sets out to test how far it can push the boundaries of the horror genre with some incredibly disturbing scenes that may have bypassed some due to the hidden nature. ‘Whistleblower’ hides nothing and just in case you haven’t yet realized how twisted Mount Massive Asylum has become then you’ll be reminded that immature descriptions like ‘scary’ and ‘gore’ have no place here, this is true, uncensored horror.  

Warning: The game contains M rated blood, gore, nudity and sexual content. As such, the screenshots below also contain such themes though with minimal spoilers and without representing the worst that this game has to offer.

‘Whistleblower’ has you step into the shoes of Waylon Park, a software developer for Mount Massive Asylum who, uncomfortable with the practices at the asylum, has been leaking information to outside sources one of whom is Miles Upshurr, the protagonist of the original game. Poor Waylon doesn’t get away with it for long however as, just as he sends the anonymous tip off to Miles, he’s caught and locked away in the asylum he was so desperately trying to draw attention to. I originally thought ‘Whistleblower’ was a prequel but as it turns out it’s much more than that. The experiences of Waylon Parks are wrapped snugly around the original storyline, taking place before, during and after the events of Outlast though in an entirely different region of the hospital.

Gameplay and environment

My previous complaints of a world that felt too linear and enemies whose AI was predictable and easy to outwit have been abolished leaving nowhere else to hide but plenty of places to run to in the blood drenched institute. Whilst the familiar sight of locked doors that progressively abolish any hope you have of escaping are still present there are now vast areas with interconnecting passageways and tiny rooms that leave you running in circles whilst a maniac relentlessly tracks you down. The enemies in this game are faster and even after sprinting for some time I would often turn to see them almost on top of me, leaving me no other option but to keep on running in the hope of losing them behind the next door, the next turn, the next table. The hiding spots too have been severely cut down and whilst the previous game had an abundance of beds and lockers to take refuge in I had a hard time finding anywhere to hide for the majority of the game. More often than not I’d simply crouch in a corner of a dark room, barely concealed by a table or a chair, and hope that they didn’t move close enough to spot me. Rather than a continual shifting of enemies to run from ‘Whistleblower’ essentially has one main threat but there are still approximately five different characters who will, at some point, try to kill you with a couple of them being familiar faces from the first game.

What makes this game so brilliant is how much emotion it draws out of you. I felt vulnerable at every step and, whereas previously wandering outside was a welcome breath of fresh air to be out of the corpse strewn halls, in ‘Whistleblower’ I was instead beset by further waves of anxiety as fog completely obscured my senses. This feeling of vulnerability that is essential to the survival horror atmosphere is completely accentuated when, at one point, you are left physically limping. As you can imagine, this does not work in your favour when trying to not be captured and killed. If you are spotted then there is quite simply no possible way of outrunning your pursuers so you just have to accept the inevitable reload as you blunder desperately on through the darkness.

The environments are thankfully different from the base game and though you do revisit certain locations it’s not in the least bit repetitive. Whilst ‘Outlast’ simply dipped its toes into exploring the grounds of the hospital ‘Whistleblower ’is more than happy to let you stretch your legs outside and, rather than confine you to rooms and corridors, frequently invites you to blunder about outside. As though it were any safer out there. Now and then you’ll find yourself bursting out through a window or a door to find yourself surrounded by the thick, impenetrable fog of the gardens or venturing through the maze of chain link fences that border the basketball courts. The worst thing about being outside is that there is quite literally no way of telling where your hunters are lurking as the fog is so thick you can barely see where you’re going, never mind whether somebody is hiding within it or not. Whilst the puzzles remain unchallenging the sheer pressure of completing them under duress is enough to make you have to replay certain portions of the game as it is inevitable you’ll get caught at least once. This is one of those games that is incredibly hard to play all in one playthrough without descending into a full blown panic attack. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who are extremely desensitized to fear and carnage and play games like this to top up your macho-nerves-of-steel persona, if this is the case, what on Earth have you been doing to have become so unflinching? I shudder to think. 

 
Conclusion

I’m not sure how they managed it but ‘Whistleblower’ is arguably scarier than 'Outlast' though significantly shorter due to it being a DLC, not a standalone game. The shortage of batteries, lack of hiding places, twisting nature of the environments and extreme nature of the carnage encountered is the perfect recipe to foster a paranoid terror known only by the deeply immersed. ‘Whistleblower’ is a solid addition to 'Outlast' and it is quite simply an incredibly haunting game that looks, sounds and plays as brilliantly as the original. ‘Whistleblower’ has achieved what it set out to do and that is to terrify the living daylights out of you. It not only manages to do that but it does so brutal confidence; slapping you about the face with its controversial scenes without apology and without remorse. With its open ending there is also great room for a sequel and I can only hope, and dread, that Red Barrels continues to make such amazing survival horror games. I can only warn you now though, that there are things in this game you can never be unseen.

The Good:

• Very controversial
• Some brilliant twists
• Terrifying and disturbing
• Solid continuation of a fantastic game
• Strong characters, likeable protagonist
• Fantastic voice acting
• Storyline builds suspense very well
• Good length for a DLC
• The Groom.

The Bad

• Would have preferred varied antagonists
• NPCs have a tendency to all look the same
• The Groom.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: "Oh... My... Good... God. That was messed up."

Not played the original yet? Check out my review for Outlast here.

Read More

Child of Light - Full Review (Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3, PC and Wii-U)

“Come, tuck yourself into bed. Let me tell a story. Of Lemuria, a kingdom past. And a girl born for glory.” 

Child of Light is a beautiful piece of poetic artwork that stands as a solid nod to traditional RPG gaming yet with its own clear sense of identity. It’s not a joyful tale as the artwork suggests but instead an incredibly moving and deeply saddening story of a lost young girl and a grieving father.Through the use of the fantastic UbiArt Framework, an engine that helped to create the stunning ‘Rayman Origins’ and ‘Rayman Legends’, Child of Light now stands proudly as Ubisoft’s latest artistic masterpiece. The game boasts an unusual, but curious, combination of turn based RPG and 2D side scrolling platformer gameplay that gives it an immediate edge over the competition. Somehow the blending of these two genres have led to the creation of something incredibly creative and incredibly original but which suffers from a lack of any real challenge and a very predictable, short storyline. Regardless, this is a tale that unfolds itself before you with such grace and beauty that you simply cannot abandon it before its time. This casual game carries itself with such style and confidence that it doesn’t take long for you to fall victim to its charms and, before you know it, you’ve been pattering around the beautiful landscapes of Lemuria for hours.

Gameplay and plot

The true nature of this game is revealed in its earliest moments when a young girl, the daughter of a powerful ruler, is stricken down by some unexplained illness. The close relationship this girl had with her father is not only apparent but utterly destroyed when, one morning, she doesn’t wake. The king is thrown into despair and, rather than care for the kingdom that needs him, instead chooses to shut himself away in his grief. But he is not the only one who is lost; somewhere else his daughter has awakened only to find herself in an unfamiliar place, far away from the comfort of her home. This beautiful but haunting land is called Lemuria and it has lately fallen victim to a mysterious character known only as the Queen of the Night. This evil queen has stolen away the sun, moon and stars of the land and it now falls to Aurora, aided by her ethereal companion, to not only recover these stolen celestial bodies but to also be reunited with her father. This is a coming of age story with a difference that will show the lengths this young princess needs to go to become the woman she needs to be to tackle adversary and save the ones she loves. 

Taking on the role of this lost young girl you’ll be transported into a beautiful hand drawn world that seems to exist entirely from a child’s perspective, from its poetic narrative to its picture book appearance this waking dream will leave you feeling utterly enchanted. Feeding into the undernourished concept of artistic gaming Ubisoft have bucked the trends of traditional gaming and instead veered down a route usually only travelled by indie developers such as Thatgamecompany, Playdead and Giant Sparrow. Not only this, the game has been designed with a cross-generational appeal in mind in order to fight back against the negative stereotype that video games damage children. What with the media trotting out the idea that games are harmful, violent and something to be avoided ‘Child of Light’ has instead produced a game that parents would be proud to, not only give to their children, but to play with them too. You can immediately see the appeal to parents and their children however as the storybook design, rhyming verses and lack of complicated menus means that even very young children will find this game engaging.  

A bit problem with these sorts of co-op RPG games is that they can often result in a restricted second player who can do no more than exist as a spectator and maybe even grab some coins or experience during battle, such as in ‘Super Mario Galaxy’. Rather than this though the developers have ensured that the supporting character of Igniculus, Aurora’s firefly companion, is able to help at every stage of the game from exploring the environment to aiding in battle. Whilst Aurora is the one doing most of the fighting Igniculus is also incredibly useful and thankfully doesn’t just sit around on the side-lines. Igniculus can slow down enemies during battles by hovering over them and slowing down their personal timer which delays their attack. Igniculus can also heal party members by absorbing magic and energy from the surrounding environment making Igniculus more of a supporting role than a defined party member. Outside of battle Igniculus can also access certain treasure chests, switches and also help Aurora progress through some very simple puzzles.

The battle system of Child of Light is very familiar to those who play RPG and JRPG games. The combat is turn based with active time, meaning that a lot of tactics are involved in order to use your time efficiently. The battle system is very similar to what you’d find in a Final Fantasy game with your standard levelling up, increasing your stats and also an upgrade tree. The upgrade tree is fairly problematic with far too many choices that all offer more or less the same minor bonuses that you can achieve by simply levelling up. Your party has a maximum size of six members by the time you reach the end of the game but during combat you are limited to just two of these characters, though you can switch them in and out which is handy. Prior to battle enemies are encountered in a very standard JRPG manner; battles trigger whilst exploring the environment and coming across an enemy but with Igniculus’ help you can bypass these encounters entirely. If Igniculus runs ahead and shines his light on the enemy he can temporarily blind them, allowing Aurora to run through unscathed.

The battles themselves generally boil down to the individual resistances and vulnerabilities of each character so whereas one may be particularly resistant to fire characters another may  be weak to them, requiring you to bolster their fire defence or just switch them out entirely. What this results in is quite a bit of character juggling as you move through the areas but it’s still a manageable amount due to the limited number of party members. The means in which you can buff your party members falls down to crafting special gems called Oculi which are really the games only crafting resource. Oculi are used to buff attacks, defences and also provide other benefits like additional experience and an increased chance of dodging. There are ten base gems such as sapphire and rubies which all have their individual properties so, diamonds increase your speed, earn additional experience from battle and also increase your casting speed. You can then combine gems of roughly the same quality, be that rough, tumbled or faceted to then create other gems of higher quality. Three rough gems of the same kind, for example, will produce one tumbled gem.  Unfortunately there’s no in game recipe chart or any form of guide so it can be quite difficult to remember how to make a particular gem without the use of pen and paper or just having to memorize everything .  

Graphics and audio

The first thing you immediately notice about this game is the stunning visuals. Whether that’s the beautiful and intricately hand drawn environments or the simple but delicately tailored HUD and font that compliments the overall feel of the game.  The environments and landscapes are incredibly varied with some very lovely visual elements such as droplets of colour rising from the ground to the sky as though a wet watercoloured painting was turned completely upside down. The game holds classic fantasy imagery everywhere you go and the childlike picture book quality does wonders for the atmosphere of this strange place. You really only need to look at the screenshots to see what a visual masterpiece this game truly is but what the screens don’t show is how beautiful the game not only looks, but sounds. The music is striking but gentle and provides a wonderfully relaxed, almost whimsical sense to the entire game though it can often dip into the melancholic and subdued as the story addresses more saddening issues.  It is clearly apparent that much loving care and craft has been poured into making sure this game punches you with the right visuals as they uplifting your spirits, swell your heart then drop you back down again with its melancholic, orchestrated melodies the leave you feeling emotionally tied up with the story. 

Overall

What let this game down was the simplistic gameplay and overly predictable storyline. It may be unfair to dismiss this game as far too easy because, and the developers have admitted as much, it’s aimed at parents and their children. The rhyming structure of the game, whilst intriguing at first, quickly becomes more of a limitation on narrative than an enhancement and sometimes you can sense that the writers struggling to keep in pace with this difficult task. The game is also very short with only about 12 hours of gameplay within it and though it is an enjoyable 12 hours it could have done with a lot of additional content. Despite the spattering of side quests alongside the main storyline the game still feels a little barren. With a game that looks and sounds so perfect and which provides such a promising concept and storyline it's hard not to feel let down as you realize the game is already drawing to a close after just several hours of play time. Despite its problems the game is a nice addition to artistic games, especially considering it’s from such a well-known developer. I can only hope that, in the future, Ubisoft try again but with something a little more fleshed out and with more effort put into the actual structure of the game. For a game that costs just £12 though it's very difficult to see these complaints through and, honestly, I only wish there was more of it because what was there was so enjoyable and so endearing.

Score: 8/10

Read More