September2023
Mini Review The Isle Tide Hotel (PS5) - A Criminally Tedious FMV Thriller
Hotel Hell
The Isle Tide Hotel's biggest crime is that it's not even so bad it's funny. It's just bad bad. Bad bad bad bad bad. There's no reason to play this game other than sheer morbid curiosity, and no reason to recommend this game to anybody for anything other than spite. But first, the formalities, so we can all get out of here. The Isle Tide...
February2023
Mini Review Ten Dates (PS4) - A Much Improved Rom-Com Sequel
Seven out of ten dates
Has humanity ever had a worse idea than speed dating? Once you forget all the obviously terrible stuff like biological weapons and motion controls, speed dating must be right up there. Five minutes of pish banter with a person who isn't laughing at any of your killer jokes before you half-heartedly ask for contact information...
November2021
Mini Review Bloodshore (PS4) - Silly Interactive Action Movie Mayhem
Battle Royale with cheese
Battle royale is a term that sends shivers down the spine of many a gamer, evoking thoughts of garish, costumed shoot-'em-ups, egregious monetisation, and an entire generation of children for whom flossing has absolutely nothing to do with dental hygiene. Stop liking things we don't understand, kids. Play Yakuza. Anyway,...
July2021
Mini Review Night Book (PS4) - Interactive Horror Is More Funny Than Scary
Booking hell
Uh oh, Dad's possessed. What rotten luck! Here you are, heavily pregnant and living in a crummy apartment in Croydon, and your fiancé Pearce has inexplicably decided to jet off to the other side world on business when you need him most. Never mind, Pearce has a plan. He's installed security cameras all over the apartment so the police...
March2021
Mini Review I Saw Black Clouds - Interactive Thriller Won't Be Winning Any Oscars
Thank you for supporting interactive drama
I Saw Black Clouds begins with a warning that tells you that the game features graphic depictions of suicide and then about four seconds later someone commits suicide. The deceased is a troubled girl named Emily and we move swiftly on to her funeral where we're introduced to Kristina and Charlotte who are...
November2020
Mini Review Five Dates (PS4) - Interactive Romantic Comedy So Bad It's Almost Good
Daters gonna date
"I've got a surprise for you," says Vinny to his friend Callum over a video call: "I've joined a dating app!" Callum reacts with such glee, one would be forgiven for thinking that Vinny had just announced the reformation of The Beatles. Surely everyone uses dating apps in 2020? Who wants to awkwardly wander up to someone in a bar...
July2020
Review Maid of Sker - Welsh Horror Fails to Inspire
Mae'n iawn
Maid of Sker represents a change of pace for Wales Interactive. After helping to spearhead a bit of an FMV renaissance over the past couple of years with The Bunker, Late Shift, and The Shapeshifting Detective, the publisher has returned to a genre it dipped its toes into back in 2017. Don't Knock Twice fell well short of expectations...
March2020
Review The Complex - Live Action Sci-Fi Story Should Have Stayed in Quarantine
Nano hell
Full-motion video, or FMV as it’s more commonly known, is enjoying a renaissance. Despite dying a premature death on early CD-based systems such as the SEGA CD and Panasonic 3DO, games like Erica and Late Shift have ushered a new era for live action, story-driven escapades. The Complex is the latest attempt from Wales Interactive, and...
December2019
Mini Review Simulacra - FMV Chat Logs Worthy of a Phone Contract
Find My iPhone
Losing a mobile phone has to be one of the biggest first-world problems, but it becomes an entirely different ball game when its owner also disappears off the face of the planet. Anna's smartphone has just been delivered to your door, and in Simulacra, you'll need to work out what has happened to her. Taking place entirely on the...
September2019
Review Headspun - A Buggy FMV Adventure with a Decent Story and Little Else
Inside nout
The brain is a complex thing; vast, mysterious, and packed full of drones in ties controlling our thoughts. Or, so says Headspun, a disappointing FMV/management hybrid that has you rebuilding the functions of a man’s mind following an accident. It’s a neat concept, but one marred by glitches, outdated mini-games, and irritatingly...
November2018
Review The Shapeshifting Detective - An Odd Yet Intriguing FMV Murder Mystery
Colonel Mustard, in the study, with the DualShock 4
The Shapeshifting Detective is a new FMV (Full Motion Video) game from Wales Interactive. It’s a curious game that pretty much does what it says on the tin. You take on the role of the titular detective and have the ability to take on the likeness of anybody you come into contact with, like a...
April2018
Let's not do the time warp again
If there was one flaw you could leverage at PlayStation VR upon its launch and the months that followed it, it was that a few too many experiences and titles designed themselves around obliterating enemies from a singular position in a wave-based manner. In the year leading up to today we thought we had ridden...
April2017
Minimum wage
Towards the back end of last year, we were pleasantly surprised by a full-motion video game named The Bunker. The first of its kind on PlayStation 4, its story, characters, and acting performances were the driving factors in what was a short but sweet experience. Publisher Wales Interactive is now back with a second foray into the FMV...
January2017
Exit stage left
Knee Deep is an odd game. Its particular brand of narrative-driven gameplay is hard to categorise: it's not quite a point-and-click adventure and not quite a walking simulator. If anything, it sits clumsily on the outskirts of the former, not really offering much in the way of pointing or clicking. Originally an episodic PC game, it...
September2016
Solitary confinement
The FMV genre has had a bit of a renaissance lately. Her Story and Contradiction: Spot The Liar both released to a positive amount of fanfare over on the PC, and now it's time for the PlayStation 4 to get its own full motion adventure. The Bunker marks quite a change in scenery for developer Wales Interactive, a studio that's...
June2016
Soul sacrificed
Frictional Games' SOMA, last year's sci-fi horror follow-up to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, explored the idea of creating a copy of a human being and downloading it into a virtual "ark", thereby preserving mankind in case of global disaster. It proved to be an engaging central conceit, which touched on ideas of identity, morality, and...
May2016
Six feet under
We'll be straight with you on this one: Coffin Dodgers is not a good kart racer. Sadly, all it really has going for it is a darkly amusing premise. Sunny Pines retirement village is where the Grim Reaper himself has decided to hang up his scythe after a lengthy career of soul collecting – but not before claiming a few more from his...
January2015
Review Gravity Badgers (PlayStation Vita)
Honey badger don't care
Don't let the incomprehensible combination of words that make up Gravity Badgers' title fool you. Taking more than its share of inspiration from the bird-tossing behemoth that is Angry Birds, does this flick-to-throw clone do enough to stand on its own four paws in a genre that's quite literally overflowing with trash? To...
February2014
Review Master Reboot (PlayStation 3)
On and off
An intriguing narrative and a clever setting can go a long way in a sci-fi adventure game, but it’s a difficult thing to pull off. As such, Master Reboot – a Myst-esque excursion by BAFTA Cymru award winning developer Wales Interactive – struggles to combine its great ideas into a compelling whole. The title comes close at times,...
