Focus Home Interactive Game Reviews
Mini Review Curse of the Dead Gods (PS4) - Dungeon Crawler Lights the Way with Unique Mechanics
A curse and a blessing
Republished on Wednesday 27th April 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. In Curse of the Dead Gods, you explore randomly generated maps in a cursed dungeon. Light is your best friend, as you take more damage in the dark...
Review Hood: Outlaws & Legends (PS5) - Competitive Stealth Title Is Real Refreshing
But it Sherwood help if it had more players
Republished on Wednesday 30th March 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of April 2022's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. What if a classic Assassin’s Creed quest was the basis for a competitive multiplayer game? Hood: Outlaws &...
Mini Review A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS5) - Rats a Good Next-Gen Upgrade
French fancies
Would it be a push to call A Plague Tale: Innocence an overlooked gem? We don't think so; what Asobo Studio achieved on PlayStation 4 deserved a lot more recognition. The somewhat historical tale of Amicia and younger brother Hugo can hold its own amongst many of the greats, and while its stealth-based gameplay may prove formulaic for...
Review A Plague Tale: Innocence - The Rats of Us
Drat
Republished on Wednesday 30th June 2021: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of July's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. A Plague Tale: Innocence is a Sony game without a Sony budget. Focus Home Interactive may not be a forum favourite, but with ambitious original properties like...
Review Necromunda: Hired Gun (PS5) - DOOM Rip-Off Broken Beyond Belief
Go to hell
You can hardly blame Streum On Studio for trying to make the next DOOM Eternal. With shooters very few and far between this early on in the PlayStation 5 generation, the developer had the opportunity to leave its mark with a fast-paced FPS that picks up right where id Software left off last year. It even had the Warhammer 40,000 license...
Review GreedFall - Spiders on the Cusp of RPG Greatness
Smooth sailing
Republished on Wednesday 30th December, 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of January 2021's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. Spiders has been busy this generation. The French developer has released two role-playing titles up to this point: Bound by Flame in 2014, and The...
Review Vampyr - An Intriguing, Bloodthirsty RPG
Sucky combat
Republished on Wednesday 30th September 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. DONTNOD has so far released two games: 2013's often forgotten Remember Me and the breakout success Life Is Strange. Vampyr is the ambitious company's...
Review Othercide - Gothic Horror Tactical Thrills
Bring your daughter to the slaughter
The easiest way to describe Othercide to somebody who hasn't played it is that it's goth XCOM. While that description is broadly accurate, it should also be noted that the game does differentiate itself from other tactical turn-based games with some interesting ideas that mostly work. There are some issues here...
Review SnowRunner - Glacial Haulage Sim Is Snow Joke
Deck the hauls
With the PlayStation 4’s catalogue so radically diverse these days, a haulage simulation set in challenging terrain doesn’t sound all that abnormal. SnowRunner is the latest instalment in the strangely popular Spintires series, which you may recall making its PlayStation 4 debut with MudRunner a few years ago. As its name...
Review The Surge 2 - Great Combat, Genius Ideas, and One Too Many Issues
Walls of Jericho
Developer Deck 13 is so, so close to putting out a good video game. After failing to capitalize on the clear potential of The Surge, the studio is back with a sequel that is bigger and better in almost every way, but it continues to slightly miss the mark in one too many key areas. The Surge 2 will satisfy those looking for their...
Review World War Z - Enjoyable Zombie Action That Narrowly Misses the Mark
Where's Brad Pitt?
The more games that release in an attempt to emulate it, the more we start to believe that Left 4 Dead was simply a product of its time. While the series never put in an appearance on a PlayStation console, its success was felt far and wide as multiple co-operative knock-offs tried and almost always failed to replicate the unique...
Review The Surge - Dark Souls with No Soul
Bloodbored
Republished on Wednesday 27th March 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of April's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. The Surge makes a great first impression. Its opening hour introduces you to a combat system that takes clear inspiration from the likes of Dark Souls and...
Review Call of Cthulhu - Eerie Adventure Game Is Enjoyable Enough
Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour Cthulhu?
H.P Lovecraft’s short stories and novellas have been a rich source of inspiration across many artistic mediums, and video games have not been immune to their call. The idea of a ‘Mythos’ populated with evil cults, interdimensional creatures, and ancient beings that can sever your...
Review Space Hulk: Deathwing (PS4)
The not-so incredible hulk
The Warhammer 40K universe represents a ripe source of inspiration for video games. With its galaxy spanning conflicts, rammed full of fascinating factions, it's mind boggling that there’s only been a small number of great games that’ve made good use of its expansive lore. With a steady stream of Warhammer 40K titles...
Review The Council: Episode 1 - The Mad Ones (PS4)
We're all mad here
Focus Home Interactive’s impressively ambitious portfolio scoops another intriguing title with Big Bad Wolf’s political period drama The Council, an episodic adventure that fuses Telltale’s narrative-driven experiences with a more traditional role-playing release. But does debut episode The Mad Ones do enough to draw you...
Review Spintires: Mudrunner (PS4)
There will be mud
Games are great because they let you do anything or be anyone. You can be Aloy, an adventurous warrior adept at killing robotic animals in a far-flung future. You can explore entire planets and travel through a vast galaxy in No Man’s Sky. In Everything, you can be, well, anything. In Spintires: Mudrunner, your goal is to move...
Review Seasons After Fall (PS4)
The colours of the wind
It’s without a doubt that Focus Home Interactive's Seasons After Fall is a gorgeous game. It’s also easy to consider similarities when regarding the visual style to Ori and the Blind Forest, as its gorgeous pastels remind us of Moon Studios' masterpiece from 2015. However, Seasons After Fall is its own unique piece of...
Review Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom (PS4)
Shiny happy people
Life can sometimes feel like waiting for the proverbial bus. While everyone has been patiently anticipating Yooka-Laylee, it actually isn't the only colourful Kickstarter game to make its way to the PlayStation 4 this month: somewhat lesser known is Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom. This is an action role-playing game, but it's not...
Review Styx: Shards of Darkness (PS4)
Sticks and stones
Admission: we weren't the biggest fans of Styx: Master of Shadows. Despite showing a bit of potential here and there, it was impossible to look past how incredibly frustrating and repetitive the entire game was – there was simply no fun to be had. So going into the sequel, our scepticism was naturally at an all-time high. But we...
Review Farming Simulator 17 (PS4)
Corny
It may have inspired a throng of gag games, but Farming Simulator 17 remains just about as serious as simulations come. Take the new addition of pigs: you need to pork them up with a balanced diet, keep them tidy, ensure that they have ample bedding and water, and only then will you reap the returns from your sows. It's hard labour of the kind...
European jank is back
The last time that Push Square visited a world made by developer Spiders, it was in the form of Bound By Flame. The 2014 title had some lofty ambitions but it failed to meet any of them, and thus shipped as a bit of a mess in both the gameplay and presentation departments. Despite those disappointments, though, the French...
Review Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition (PS4)
Sin-ply divine
PC gamers have been roaming through Divinity: Original Sin since the middle of last year, after a successful Kickstarter campaign and some hefty delays. For these day-one players, it's been yet another long wait for the Enhanced Edition to roll out: an immense - and free - update to the initial release that fleshes out and extends an...
Fantasy football
With turn-based strategy games usually taking place in some sort of military or empire building setting, it's always nice to see a title bring something a little different to the table. In Blood Bowl 2, American football's been forced through a Warhammer fantasy filter to create a violent sport where Humans, Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves...
Review Tour de France 2015 (PS4)
Smooth ride
If your Sunday bike ride doesn't take you 180 kilometres through some of the most scenic areas of Europe, you really need to buck your ideas up. The rest of us – statuesque in our hard-bodied glory – don't really need a video game tie-in for the Tour de France, because we live it every single day. Still, last year's travesty...
Review Farming Simulator 15 (PlayStation 4)
You reap what you sow
Farming Simulator 15 feels like work – and we intend that as a backhanded compliment, by the way. Giants Software's agricultural adventure has been at the butt of many a joke since its inception in 2007, but despite the finger pointing, there is something curiously compelling about the Swiss studio's soil turning title...
Review Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PlayStation 4)
Baker treat
Sherlock Holmes is the ultimate alpha male. He may not be particularly strong, but he has the ability to crush any man with his incredible intellect – and in Crimes and Punishments, a PlayStation 4 adventure loosely based upon Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous short stories and the BBC’s more modern adaptation, he practically revels...
Review Farming Simulator 14 (PlayStation Vita)
Old MacDonald had a more exciting farm
Ever since the days of Rollercoaster Tycoon and Sim City, we’ve seen an abundance of simulator-style games. Some of these have been decent, while others have been downright baffling – Street Cleaning Simulator, anyone? However, in spite of their quality, these types of games have had more of a home on the...
Review Tour de France 2014 (PlayStation 4)
Tour de Pants
It is Tour de France time, and that means crowds of talented bikers defeating our evil physics overlords and riding through one another across the beautiful French countryside and chunks of England. No? That must just be one of the fantastic new features in Tour de France 2014, a game which also serves up blind robot crowds and a host...
Review Bound by Flame (PlayStation 4)
Dragon rage
Bound by Flame is the PlayStation 4's first foray into the magical land of fantasy role-playing games. Over the last few months leading up to release, developer Spiders has thrown numerous trailers and screenshots online, and although you can never judge a finished product from its media, it's worth pointing out that this particular...
Review Contrast (PlayStation 4)
If it's broke, fix it
Contrast is the first game by indie developer Compulsion Games. It, along with Resogun, shares the distinction of being the one of the first free PlayStation Plus giveaways on the PlayStation 4. The title follows a young girl named Didi, who works to reunite her estranged parents with the help of her imaginary friend Dawn (the...
