Latest Reviews
Mini Review Yakuza 4 Remastered - Uneven Storytelling Holds Back Another Solid Yakuza Title
Four's a crowd
When it originally released back in 2010, Yakuza 4 was defined by its four playable characters -- a first for the series. Alongside mainstay protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, players got to experience the stories of charismatic loan shark Akiyama, escaped convict Saejima, and street-smart cop Tanimura. In Yakuza 4 Remastered, all four...
Review Outer Wilds - An Engaging, Open Ended Sci-Fi Mystery
The great unknown
Rather than making space an endless slog to explore, Mobius Digital has condensed its starry sandbox down to a handful of small planets packed with secrets. Outer Wilds is an open ended sci-fi title with a time-twisting mystery at its heart, and it manages to do a lot with a little. It might take some getting used to, but this is a...
Review WWE 2K20 - 2K Sports' Wrestling Sim Hits Rock Bottom
Undisputed Error
WWE has released a video game based on its flagship brand of sports entertainment every year for close to three decades now, so it may be surprising to some that this year’s entry has veered away from the franchise’s grappling roots in a variety of ways. For a start, all traditional forms of locomotion have been removed, as you...
Review Outlast II - A Harrowing Sequel That's Desperate to Shock
Trial and terror
Republished on Wednesday 30th October 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. If the original Outlast is considered a somewhat crude exploration of mental health and the challenges that society faces in understanding it, then...
Review Nioh - Team Ninja's Take on Dark Souls Is a Striking Alternative
Prepare to daikatana
Republished on Wednesday 30th October 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Stop us if you think you've heard this one before. You wake up in prison in your underwear, immediately breaking out and making your way...
Review Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - A Great Campaign Rescues an Otherwise Safe Reimagining
Reboots on the ground
True to its name, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare retreads familiar territory, and in more ways than one. Not to be confused with the remaster of Call of Duty 4, this is a full blown reboot that ironically shakes up the formula by going back to where the franchise's fortunes truly started. However, while some old ideas are revived...
Review Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King - A Comprehensive Nostalgia Trip
The king has returned
Nostalgia is a powerful drug, especially a double whammy of childhood movies and games. Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is exactly as advertised -- the beloved 16-bit platformers bundled together. Only it's more than that; Capcom's Aladdin for SNES aside, this is about as comprehensive a package as you could...
Review Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD - Monkey's Paw Paradox At Play in Port of Poor Game
Monkey balls
There’s a bit of a monkey’s paw paradox to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD: SEGA’s vibrant Marble Madness-esque roll-‘em-up has finally made its long-awaited PlayStation 4 debut, but not even apes would have picked this wretched ex-Nintendo Wii exclusive as the version to port. Maligned at launch for its miserable motion...
Review Close to the Sun - A Tribute Act That Struggles to Land
Current affairs
To say that Close to the Sun heavily evokes BioShock in its opening chapters is a massive understatement. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Arriving at a seabound utopia - established as a place where the great minds of the time can flex without being restrained by their governments - you find it in total disarray, with a...
Review Return of the Obra Dinn - Methodical Maritime Mystery Masterpiece
Worse things happen at sea
Return of the Obra Dinn is the most engrossing puzzler on PlayStation 4 since The Witness. Putting you in the shoes of an investigator, you're sent aboard the titular ship, which has reappeared after being assumed lost five years earlier. Your job is to explore every part of the vessel in order to work out the identity and...
Review Cat Quest II - Simple But Satisfying RPG Fun That Shines in Co-Op
Purrty doggone good
A follow-up to 2017's simple but very effective Cat Quest, the appropriately named Cat Quest II is bigger and better. The first game's simplicity remains intact, making for another approachable action role-playing title that's fun for all ages. Journeying across the game's colourful map, picking up quests, whacking monsters, and...
Review MediEvil - A Successful Resurrection of a Flawed But Fun Adventure
Undead and loving it
Remakes of fondly remembered favourites always have a tough call to make: should they remain faithful to the source material, or make improvements and changes to modernise the old-school design? The answer usually lies somewhere in between. MediEvil is the latest PSone classic to be brought back to life, and it errs on the side...
Review The Outer Worlds - Fallout: New Vegas Meets Mass Effect in This Role-Playing Masterclass
Spacer's choice
The Outer Worlds borrows a lot from Fallout. More specifically, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, the latter being developer Obsidian's own creation. You travel between disgruntled communities, picking up quests and shooting people you don't like. You click your way through branching dialogue options, and the camera zooms in on a...
Sharpened steel
The story of Rean Schwarzer continues in Trails of Cold Steel III as the often obnoxiously nice protagonist finds himself back at school, only this time, he isn't a student. After graduating from Thors Military Academy following the events of the second game, Rean now leads the all-new Class VII as an instructor at a freshly...
Review Pig Eat Ball - Solid Swine Arcade Action
Sow good
Don’t let its rudimentary title deceive you: action-puzzler Pig Eat Ball is a fun homage to arcade titles that develops into a surprisingly deep experience with a quirky plot. You play as Princess Bow, a young pig forced into marriage when (like any good princess) she wants adventure in the great wide somewhere. Your overall goal is to...
Avast, landlubbers
A long ocean voyage to a distant snowy land gets off to a disastrous beginning when a storm scuppers your plans and leaves you washed up on a tropical island. You’ll need to find your crew, build a little base camp, explore, and try to find a way to escape. One of the first things you’ll notice in Stranded Sails: Explorers of...
Review Lonely Mountains: Downhill - A Great Take on Trials with an Eerie Atmosphere
Bike curious
You’ll probably remember the first time you played Trials HD – brilliant, wasn’t it? As time has gone by, though, the bike balancing formula has lost a little of its lustre. Lonely Mountains: Downhill recaptures some of the aforementioned series' early magic with a moreish outdoorsy outing that will have you both punching the air...
Review Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville - Whimsical Warfare in This Fun, Floral Shooter
Tussled sprouts
Plants vs. Zombies has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a tower defence game. After developer PopCap was acquired by EA, the studio churned out two fairly well-received multiplayer shooters before going relatively quiet for the past three years. Now returning with Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, is it...
Review Megaquarium - Nothing Fishy About This Brilliant Maritime Attraction Builder
Swimming in cash
Did you know that there was a PSone sequel to Theme Park and Theme Hospital named Theme Aquarium which only released in Japan? The maritime attraction simulator is a bit of an underground gem, and it’s bemusing to think that the idea has barely been explored since. Megaquarium, fortunately, brings the fun of making your very own...
Assassins bleed
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is the kind of the game that revels in poking fun at its contemporaries – and yet somehow finds itself part of the punchline. This irreverent slice of post-modern punk has all of the verve of its Nintendo Wii predecessors, but it’s padded by stale gameplay segments which threaten to undo all...
Review Monkey King: Hero Is Back - Simplistic Brawling Fun That's a Bit Too Short
Planet of the apes
Monkey King: Hero Is Back is a love letter to simpler times. Mechanically, it wouldn’t feel out of place on the PlayStation 2, and graphically, it’s barely just a generation ahead of that. This is a simple experience at heart, but it’s one you’re bound to find some enjoyment in should you take to its rather repetitive...
Review Children of Morta - Family Matters in This Refreshing Rogue-Lite Adventure
Talkin 'bout my random generation
How do you make your pixelated rogue-lite game stand out? Children of Morta has an interesting answer. While you're cleaving your way through hundreds of corrupted baddies in the title's randomly generated dungeons, it frequently hits you with moments of story. The combination of random levels with a set narrative...
Review Baldurs Gate: Enhanced Edition Pack - Old School RPGs Have Still Got It
Baldur's Great
After being stranded on PC along with Minesweeper and PowerPoint for the best part of two decades, classic role-playing game Baldur's Gate is finally heading to PlayStation so it can be played while you're sat on your couch in your pyjamas, controller in hand, just like God intended. A young orphan who witnesses the death of their...
Review ReadySet Heroes - Fundamental Flaws Betray a Novel Twist on Multiplayer Dungeon Crawling
Party animals
ReadySet Heroes, the dungeon crawling party game from Robot Entertainment, arrived two weeks ago, but doesn't seem to be as prepared as its title implies. As of right now, the game just isn't up to scratch, with some glaring issues betraying its interesting ideas. There are just two modes of play. Crawl n' Brawl has up to four players...
Review Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince - Gorgeous Puzzle Platformer Is a Return to Form
Saving the kingdom, one floating box at a time
The first two games in Frozenbyte’s Trine series were whimsical 2D puzzle platformers. A third title, Artifacts of Power, switched to 3D and offered a shorter adventure that left some fans cold. Trine 4 throws away that extra dimension, and feels much more like the series at its best. Returning...
Review Habroxia - A No-Frills Arcade Shmup on PS4
Don’t forget your quarters
The arcade style shmup’s been around for a long time now. Space Invaders is nearly 50 years old, and Galaga isn’t far behind. To say that the gameplay ideas for the genre have been perfected at this point would be an understatement. How do you add something new to that? Enter Habroxia, which plays more or less like...
Review Indivisible - Gorgeous 2D Platforming and Battling Let Down by Difficulty Spikes
Indie visuals
Four years on from its successful Kickstarter campaign, Lab Zero Games’ Indivisible comes to PlayStation 4 with a decent degree of anticipation. Described as an experience that combines a number of different genres into one cohesive undertaking, the final product comes together much better than you might think. Indivisible is sure to...
Review Frostpunk - Alternate History City Builder Survives Against The Odds
Colder than the other side of the pillow
Here's a little bit of history for you: back in the year 1883 the volcano Krakatoa erupted, and spewed millions of tonnes of ash and molten rock into the atmosphere. There was so much of the stuff up there that sunlight actually struggled to reach the planet's surface and global temperatures cooled...
Review The Bradwell Conspiracy - Jonathan Ross Can't Save This Technically Inept Title
Go home
The Bradwell Conspiracy wants to reach the same heights as Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, but thanks to woeful performance on PlayStation 4 and clunky, unreliable mechanics, it goes in the opposite direction. After an explosion at the Bradwell Stonehenge Museum starts to topple the building over, it’s yours and a companion’s...
Review GRID - Codemasters Is Driving Safe with a Solid PS4 Reboot
It's not quite a Jaguar
The GRID series has an interesting history. The inaugural title, Race Driver: GRID, was a cracking debut that served as a sort of successor to the TOCA franchise. It laid down some incredibly solid groundwork that sequels didn't quite build upon properly. Codemasters has seen fit to revisit the series with the appropriately...
