Tag: Reviews

Degrees Of Separation (PS4)

Some of you may remember me talking about this game a while back, and the guys over at Modus Games sent me a review copy, namely Geoff (seriously go check them out on Twitter) which I am always grateful for. I always like to get this admission out of the way before I review a game because I feel everyone deserves to know. That being said, let us talk about this tale of love that was sent to me appropriately on Valentine’s day.

The game is described as “an atmospheric 2D puzzle platformer”, which tells you a lot and nothing at the same time oddly enough. Sure it will tell you what the game is, but I don’t feel it truly does this game justice. You will control two characters, Ember, who is always in what can probably be best described as summer and Rime, who is always in winter. The two leave their homes and meet on a bridge, and from there they will go on a magical journey of discovery where they will get to know the world around them, each other, and how their abilities will help each other. Yes, there is more to the story, so much more which is both beautiful and for me was sad in its own way but I never want to spoil the experience for you guys.

The key aspect of this game is the puzzles. They range from simple things like using Ember to light something and move a platform to use Rime to freeze some water to walk across. Later you will get a sort of wand to create a bridge out of the area between worlds for one of the characters to walk across with the purpose of collecting scarfs which after collecting so many will allow you to access new areas. See, this is where the sad part was for me. These two characters work together and get closer and closer, but they can’t touch each other or ever truly embrace. Their worlds of summer and winter are literally keeping them apart. I don’t know if this was an intentional thing from the developers over at Moondrop games, but for me, it was a constant thread in my journey.

The puzzles were also very well done. See many are pretty straight forward while others pissed me off to no end, but they were fair. I never came across a puzzle I felt was unfair or that once I figured it out I was left wondering who would ever have thought of that. Despite the fact that I hate the phrase, this isn’t the “Dark Souls” of puzzle games and it isn’t designed for you to fail until you figure things out. It wants you to succeed and watch the story unfold and it wants you to explore.

The real thing I loved about this, however, was the couch co-op. Yes, you can play this by yourself, and you are free to do so. I started that way and had some fun. However, when my friend joined me is when we had some fun. She isn’t a gamer, I just said hey Casey I need some help come play a game so she did. She had no issue picking it up and I really didn’t have to explain much to her. It was great to have someone else to help figure out the puzzles and I truly believe this is the best way to experience the game.

The one big gripe I have about this game is there is a quick travel system. The issue is I found it on accident and until that point, I had no idea. While we were trying to figure out one puzzle I got a little to close to a little object, in the picture below it looks like stacked rocks with orange arrows for guidance. When I hit circle I turned into a butterfly to follow the paths to places I have collected the scarfs.

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All that being said, the real question comes down to the one simple question, should you spend your hard earned money on this game? Truth be told, I don’t like puzzle games. I never would have bought this game truth be told, but I asked for the review copy because Geoff is a good guy and Modus games are quickly becoming one of my favorite companies. They haven’t let me down yet and I have enjoyed everything of theirs I have played. The day will come when I will sadly have to say hey this game sucks don’t buy it, but today is not that day. The story is nice and I quickly became attached to them, I never came across any glitches and the graphics and sound matched what they were trying to tell. This game is Savior approved, 9/10 one of the best puzzle games I have played.

Subnautica (Ps4 and PC)

Subnautica is the rare game I played on both PC and PS4, not because I loved it that much I felt the need to buy it twice simply because I got it for free on PC so there was no reason not to play it. That being said, I do love the game. I am a sucker for the survival genre and admittedly Subnautica does it very well. The crafting system is easy to use and I never truly felt lost on how to build anything even tho the game doesn’t hold your hand.

The visuals are stunning but the PC version does have a few issues with textures popping in and out regardless of my system settings, and I know others have had similar issues even with better setups tho it is worth noting nobody I know with high-end setups has played it, they are all mid-range at best, the PS4 also does it at longer ranges while traveling. Neither is a major issue admittedly. The sound is also some of the best I’ve heard in gaming, and when you are deep down it can be outright frightening to be damn near blind but hear giant sea creatures all around you. This is where the game shines, as you will feel safe one moment and not the next.

The story, well I can’t say much without spoiling it, but you won’t struggle to find it, and it is worth finding. You will be tempted to simply survive and build stuff which is perfectly fine to do, but the story is worth seeking out. I can honestly give you no reason not to pick this game up on your console of choice, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Apex Legends (PS4)

Apex Legends, the new and hot Battle Royal from Respawn the makers of Titanfall. Honestly, that should tell you all you need to know since it is respawn. You would expect fluid controls, great graphics, and a new twist. What do you get? You get fluid controls, great graphics, and a new twist. All games are played with a group of three that the game happily assigns to you or you can grab a few friends. The jumpmaster picks a spot and you can either join him or go on your own.

The characters are each unique and have their own ups and downs. The issues with the game are honestly pretty few. I had no frame rate drops or graphical issues, none of the characters felt under or overpowered and admittedly at no time do I feel like I am obligated to spend money to compete even tho two characters are essentially locked behind a paywall. They just happen to be two characters you have to buy. The cosmetics don’t seem overly expensive either.

The game isn’t perfect, it is still a battle royal and still suffers from many of the same flaws. The game has 1 map, at least for now, and it is the same thing over and over again. If you aren’t willing to put some real time into it and learn the ma you will be at a huge disadvantage and you can seriously hide and kill 1 person to win the round. You can conceivably win by luck and not skill, but that is just the nature of the beast. I don’t think this is a Fortnite killer, but it is definitely a great alternative. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gunhouse (PS4)

Gunhouse is one of the other free games on PSN this month and I have to say it is easily the weakest. It is a puzzle game where you will sometimes be moving blocks to create bigger blocks that will be used to create either guns or special techniques and the rest of your time defending your home.

The problem is neither part of the game is fun. You will always be doing one of those two things, neither of which take very long. You start out in the puzzle section and really only have the option to move things left or right to make things fall and create a square of four so it creates bigger symbols. These can be made into either a weapon on the left side of your house or special ammo on the right. These each has different uses depending on the symbol used to create them. This pattern gets boring fast, and even for free, I can’t see myself playing again. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

36 Fragments Of Midnight

36 Fragments Of Midnight is a rather simple concept. You are a little square block, bounce around the map dodging all sorts of traps like saw blades and lasers to collect 36 fragments. The game itself is also kind of simple, in fact, in about an hour you can get a nice shiny platinum trophy. The real questions here are is the game fun and how does it play?

Well, it plays pretty well, at no point did I die and think it was the games fault. Getting around is simply a matter of hitting left and right and using the jump button to jump once or twice. As for fun, eh. I didn’t find it very fun at all. There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with the game, it looks good and plays well I just didn’t enjoy my time with it. For $3 tho, it is worth it for the quick platinum if you are into that sort of thing. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rogue Aces (PS4)

Rogue Aces is one of the PSN free games for February, its a small game ( less than a gig) so I figured I would try it out. The game is essentially an airplane fighter game, you take off from an aircraft carrier, run quick missions and land again. You get one life, and three planes. I make this distinction because if you fail to eject on time, even with the first plane and die, it is game over. You also get game over if you lose all three ships.

The game seems quite easy, take off, kill stuff, land. There are some advanced things, however, like when you jump out of your plane it is possible to land in an enemy plane and take it as your own, however, the few times I have managed to do this I didn’t see any difference between them and your own.

The graphics and sound are nice but my main issue is honestly the controls are a bit weird at times. A small tap up will occasionally send you up far faster than it previously did and landing is very imprecise. Despite that the game is fun and you should really go check it out, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Soda Dungeon (Mobile)

Soda Dungeon is kind of odd. You visit a bar that sells soda, decide you want to be an adventurer but can’t afford it and send a soda addict to go adventuring for you. Not even kidding about that. You then use that money to upgrade the bar (at the request of the owner) so you can attract new people to adventure for you.

The game is honestly kind of boring fast. You unlock more people by increasing your reputation and by unlocking new sodas to bring in new people to send in after new gear and money. I honestly can not recommend this game, it gets boring fast and isn’t all that interesting. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hot Pursuit (1987)

Hot Pursuit from 1987 is the story of Dan Bartlett (John Cusack) and his failure to catch a plane on time after he fails a chemistry test. Now he must catch a later flight to catch up with his girlfriend and her insanely rich family. Upon landing in the Caribbean he tries to catch a cab which is stolen from him, and this is where it turns into almost an old fashioned role-playing game.

Seriously, he will meet 3 friendly Rastafarians that he mistakenly thinks may be criminals because he was warned to watch out for the locals. They actually teach him to throw a machete. He will then narrowly miss meeting up with his girlfriend, he will give up hope and get drunk. He will then be basically kidnapped after he passes out and ends up with a seemingly crazed man obsessed with catching up with the boat his girlfriend is on, but he will luckily end up learning on to sail. I am telling you this because it all comes back around.

Later on, he will eventually meet up with his girlfriend, and I don’t want to spoil the ending but learning to throw a machete and sail factors into the ending. Each main person he meets teaches him a new skill to help him in his quest. This isn’t bad, it was just painfully glaring there. The movie itself has some laughs but admittedly isn’t very good and definitely is not one of John Cusack’s better movies. As a person that loves 80’s movies, this one was just not very enjoyable. I did like the ending, the journey there just didn’t worth it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Smallville Season 6

Smallville Season 6 is kind of insane honestly. From the start when Clark is stuck in the Phantom Zone until the very end when Lana leaves Lex there is just a ton going on, and in between, we have Clark attempting to stop all the things he unleashed from the Phantom Zone when he escaped. There are a few things I dislike tho.

The first example would be the entire story arc with Zod ends far too quickly. Zod has always been one of Supermans greatest enemies and is also one of his oldest, yet in a few short episodes, we end the whole thing with Zod and move on. This to me was a huge missed opportunity, and while the season was great and entertaining there was no need to rush through Zod.

The set of for season 7 was even worse, not because it wasn’t awesome which it was, but because it sets up Bizarro Superman. How do we start with Zod and end with Bizzaro in one season when each of these could easily have been a season each.

That all aside it was rather nice seeing Green Arrow make his appearance and it is always fun to see Aquaman along with the other heroes that have shown up in the show. All in all, I enjoyed the season but you can see where the yare rushing through some things. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Farming Simulator 15 (PS4)

Some of you may remember a while back, got curious and bought Farming Simulator 17 (Xbox One) to see what it was like. Well, Farming Simulator 15 was on sale and I had to see what that game was like and not surprisingly it is quite a bit like Farming Simulator 17. There are of course some added tools, crops and animals and the graphics are better but the game is basically the same, even at least one of the farms seems exactly the same.

Now clearly I could be wrong, there may be slight differences as I didn’t go and examine things carefully but they are at least quite similar. There as also some things missing that I liked from 17, such as the ability to tie things down on your trailers. This, of course, isn’t a deal breaker and if you simply want to see if you like the genre, by all means, pick it up on sale. The 2 are similar enough I don’t see a reason to purchase one over the other if you simply want to experiment and see if you like it.

That being said, if you played 15 and never played 17 and are looking to upgrade I would suggest just buying  Farming Simulator 19. I haven’t played it yet but these two are so similar I can’t imagine 19 being vastly different to the point you would dislike it but like these. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.