puzzler

August 28, 2017

Black The Fall Review (Xbox One)

Nathan Gibson black the fall, communism, platformer, puzzler, Square Enix 0

Black The Fall is the first game from new developer Sand Sailor Studio. At first glimpse it will probably instantly remind you of the likes of Inside, another monochromatic puzzle platformer. Yet, when you get down to the nitty gritty it becomes obvious that Black The Fall is a very different game, in terms of its underlying themes and plot as well as the way it plays. Of course, none of that matters unless it is a good game, so let’s take a look at it. While most recent games of this type have attempted to be cryptic and mysterious in terms of their overall story, Black The Fall is much more open about its influences and message. It is intended to be a harsh criticism of oppression and is obviously heavily inspired by the communist regime that its Romanian developers had to endure. The harrowing communist future that is Black The Fall is bleak to an exaggerated extreme. The rows of buildings are just carbon copies of each other.

March 17, 2017

Kill the Bad Guy (Xbox One) Review

Nathan Gibson Indie, kill the bad guy, Puzzle Game, puzzler, review, xbox one 0

Modern day games tend to avoid being overly blunt wherever possible, with titles that do little to let you know what they are actually about. Kill the Bad Guy does not suffer from that problem. It tells you from the get go exactly what the game is and what you will be doing in it. You take on the role of a hitman of sorts who has been tasked with taking out various different villains. The only trick is that you cannot use traditional weapons but instead have to manipulate the environment in such a way that the bad guy is killed while going about his day to day business. Although that might make this game sound very serious and menacing, Kill the Bad Guy is actually a rather fun and humorous that has an emphasis on puzzle solving rather than the intense action that might be associated with an assassin taking out his targets. Levels around the player having to use the various objects scattered throughout each location to

September 28, 2016

The Turing Test (Xbox One) Review

Nathan Gibson bulkhead interactive, consoles, microsoft, puzzle, puzzler, review, Turing Test, xbox one, Xbox One 0

On first impression, The Turing Test might seem eerily familiar. After all, it features a female protagonist being guided through a scientific facility by a mysterious artificial intelligence as the player has to solve a variety of clever puzzles. Despite these outward similarities to Portal, this game by Bulkhead Interactive manages to do enough maintain its individuality and separate itself from other titles in the genre. The puzzler largely takes place on a research station on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, and puts the player in control of an International Space Agency engineer called Ava Turing. After being awoken from a cryogenic sleep, the AI T.O.M. informs you that you have to get to the research lab to contact the crew who have cut off communication. When you arrive after a brief tutorial section it is apparent that the researchers have changed the station so that it now incorporates a vast array of chambers with puzzles that can obstinately only be solved by a human, leaving any AI without the

January 23, 2012