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Perception (Xbox One) Review

Perception (Xbox One) Review

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Perception, a survival horror game from The Deep End Games, a development studio made up of several people who had worked on the BioShock series at Irrational Games. It puts players into the role of Cassie, a blind woman who has to use echolocation to explore and mansion and discover the secrets hidden within it. This unique concept and the pedigree of the developers gave many people high expectations, now it just remains to see if Perception can live up to those the anticipation. All of the best survival horror games rely on the player having limitations put upon them. These restrictions force you to think differently and explore worlds in a much more careful manner, as well as providing a way for the world and its inhabitants to threaten you in a unique way. The way that perception tries to achieve this is by having the protagonist be blind. With your surroundings plunged into darkness, you instead have to rely on echolocation to experience the environment. This manifests in

Thea: The Awakening (Xbox One) Review

Thea: The Awakening (Xbox One) Review

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It is somewhat difficult to review Thea: the Awakening for the simple reason that it is unlike almost any other game. It combines elements of an RPG, 4X strategy game, base management simulator, and card battler together to create an experience that is certainly different from most other games you are likely to have played recently. This individuality assaults you when you first settle down to play. It seems like a totally fresh game that doesn’t share the common, and often tired, elements that come with other similar titles. Unfortunately, Thea just cannot maintain that feeling for very long. Mostly, this is a result of everything just becoming far too repetitive as you progress through each turn. It’s made worse by the constant management you have to go through for every single aspect of the game. The story of Thea, which you are introduced to very early on, is probably one of its best features. You take on the role of one of several Slavic gods who have been reborn

Planetbase (Xbox One) Review

Planetbase (Xbox One) Review

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Despite the ever increasing library of ID@Xbox titles that are making their way to Xbox one, there is still one genre that is somewhat underrepresented. Planetbase is set to change that, with the strategy simulation game giving players the chance to set up their very own space colony. The game originally released on PC back in 2015. Being ported from PC can sometimes mean that this type game suffers from a variety of problems, ranging from a cluttered presentation to overcomplicated controls that simply don’t work on a controller. So the important aspect of this review will be to see if and how the developer Madruga Works have managed to side step these issues. As mentioned above, Planetbase is essentially about putting you in control of establishing a brand new human colony on an alien planet. To this end, you have to manage almost every aspect of life on the surface. This ranges from constructing new facilities, managing resources, and ensuring that your population has enough of each type of

The Sexy Brutale (Xbox One) Review

The Sexy Brutale (Xbox One) Review

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The premise of The Sexy Brutale isn’t exactly clear from the name. It even takes a little bit of time for the game to explain exactly what it going on and what you will be doing. It turns out that the host of a mansion masquerade ball is missing and the staff are brutally murdering the guests in a collection of extravagant ways. Your job is to journey around the building, stopping the party from becoming murderous by preventing the various killings. In practice, this makes for a completely unique game that is unlike anything else I’ve ever played before. The Sexy Brutale introduces a number of innovative ideas almost immediately. This includes giving your character both a mask that turns them invisible to everyone else and a time traveling watch that allows you to reset the day. This effectively gives you unlimited chances to save the guests from their fate. Unfortunately, though, as this is a puzzle game you cannot simply warn the victims what is about to befall

Crawl (Xbox One) Review

Crawl (Xbox One) Review

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Like many other indie games that have come out in the past few years, Crawl looks very much like a retro game thanks to its low-resolution pixelated look. While this is a common enough design choice to evoke a feeling of nostalgia, the developers behind this game have seemed to choose it to fit in with the arcade-like nature of the title. This is because Crawl is very much a game that is meant to be played in short bursts. The game begins with your party having entered a system of caverns and caves only to overcome by some sort of evil force. This induces a madness within the characters that leads them to fight each other until there is just one survivor. From there, you have to reach level 10 by defeating a series of enemies so that you can teleport to a special area where a boss fights awaits. Once the end boss has been defeated, the game ends and you have the choice to start a new

Forma.8 (Xbox One) Review

Forma.8 (Xbox One) Review

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Forma.8 is a metroidvania that has been in development by MixedBag for the last few years. The first glimpse we got of the game two years ago suggested this could be an intriguing title and with its release, it is time to see if the two-man outfit from Turin, Italy have managed to deliver the goods. The game begins with the forma you control, a small probe-like machine, crashing onto an alien planet set to explore the world and search for an energy source. This is about as much the plot explains itself explicitly. From here on out you are given almost no instructions or prompts and simply have to explore the environment you find yourself to discover the mysteries that are hidden throughout out. This minimalist approach to the story works in the sense of really making you feel like you are on an alien planet that you have no real information about. It’s entirely up to you to fill in the blanks. As you might expect from a

Chime Sharp (Xbox One) Review

Chime Sharp (Xbox One) Review

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Chime Sharp is the successor to the 2010 puzzle game Chime, which released on the Xbox 360 as well as a number of other platforms. It follows the same basic rules and has a similar appearance but has been expanded and upgraded in several key areas. With the multitude of puzzlers available across the Xbox One, though, is it worth your time and money? The answer is almost definitely yes. The game revolves around you having to make quads using a series of different shaped blocks that have a Tetris-like feel to them. They fit together, change the color of the background and are deleted by a wave that passes through the level in time with the music, with the ultimate goal being to cover the entire grid. As you do this, the music adds more layers and your score increases. This might all sound rather simple but the difficulty and challenge come from the fact that there are a variety of different stages for you to unlock that feature

Rise & Shine (Xbox One) Review

Rise & Shine (Xbox One) Review

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There is a particular problem, not really associated with other forms of media, that plagues video games that aim to lampoon the industry. While other types of parody simply have to be funny to be considered a success, a game has to pull this off while simultaneously managing to still be a decent experience to play. Otherwise the joke, and the title itself, will simply fall flat. This is the challenge that faces Rise & Shine, a video game that draws almost all of its inspiration and humor from the industry it is part of. Rise & Shine sets its tone very early. The plot begins with the player being introduced to the protagonist, a young boy named Rise, who has to take on the mantle of hero when he comes across a legendary sword known as Shine. Together, the two must battle a horde of invading evil space grunts while they try to reach a mythical location that cane somehow stop the threat and restore some semblance of peace

Her Majesty’s Spiffing (Xbox One) Review

Her Majesty’s Spiffing (Xbox One) Review

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Considering current world events, it might seem like a good idea to blast off into space in search of a new home. This is the case in Her Majesty’s Spiffing, a graphic adventure game that sees the Queen become tired with Politicians in Westminster and decide to launch a new Empire in the infinite possibilities of space. You take on the role of Captain English, who is joined by the Welsh Sub-Lieutenant Jones, as they try to find some new planets to colonize in the name of Her Majesty. First off, it is important to note that this title is unashamedly British. Those who don’t get the humor of the UK and aren’t familiar with many of the tropes and eccentricities of its people might struggle to understand exactly what is going on. This is made abundantly clear from the very first mission, which tasks you with making two cups of tea. Much of the fun of Her Majesty’s Spiffing comes from the witty dialogue and satire of Britain in

Nebulous (Xbox One) Review

Nebulous (Xbox One) Review

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One of the most popular type of indie titles are puzzle games. Perhaps it is because of the fact that they are not considered mainstream enough for AAA developers to bother with and that they are rarely considered value for money as full retail releases. Whatever the case, the likes of the ID@Xbox program have given creators the chance to reach a large enough audience to justify making puzzle games once again. Nebulous joins the ranks of the genre as a physics-based puzzler that sees players guiding an astronaut through a series of ever more complex levels. As you might expect from this type of game, the story isn’t the main focus. You start off with the astronaut, a person named Dash Johnson, being sucked into wormhole and transported to an unknown region of space. Without the ability to move himself anymore, the protagonist relies completely on the player to move him around the levels and get him to his next destination. Alongside some witty banter from Dash as he

Headlander (Xbox One) Review

Headlander (Xbox One) Review

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Headlander is exactly the type of game that you would expect Double Fine Productions, the Tim Schafer company that has been responsible for the likes of Psychonauts and Brutal legend, to make. The only real difference between it and some of their other output is that they have squarely prioritized gameplay over everything else, meaning that the story and action isn’t quite as in-depth or funny as you might expect, but boy is it really fun. The game takes place in an unspecified futuristic setting that is very much inspired by the likes of Logan’s Run. Technology has advanced to the stage that humans are now able to upload their consciousness to a cloud storage system where they can effectively take over the bodies of robots to carry out any physical tasks. Unfortunately, an authoritarian AI known as Methusaleh has been causing a stir and it is up to you to relieve the rogue AI from power. Having awoken as just a floating head with no idea of who you

Jotun: Valhalla Edition Review (Xbox One)

Jotun: Valhalla Edition Review (Xbox One)

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Jotun: Valhalla Edition is a rather strange game in terms of its gameplay, story, and presentation. You play as a recently deceased Viking woman who is seeking to prove herself worthy of entry into Valhalla to Odin. To do this, the player must defeat various Gods in combat to earn their appreciation and impress them sufficiently so that you are allowed into the Norse equivalent of heaven. What makes it so unusual, though, is that this action-adventure game uses hand drawn images for its art style and features a distinct lack of enemies other than the aforementioned boss encounters. The first thing you will notice when loading up Jotun are the truly spectacular visuals. It is also clear from the outset that this is a game that the developer has poured a lot of love into and gone to great lengths to create. Everything has been hand drawn so that the entire world looks much like a high quality animation from the likes of Disney – the finished product can

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