Toro

Cost
$19.99
Format
Digital
Size
2.17 GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed]

Release Date
5/15/2015
Developer
Recotechnology S.L.
Publisher
Recotechnology S.L.
Modes
Single Player

Toro is a bullfighting simulator developed by Rectotechnology S.L. The game promises to challenge your skills and reflexes against an array of dangerous bulls worldwide, as you face the beast with style and excitement. Sadly however, the game fails to do any of that. In fact Toro is one of the worst games I’ve ever played on so many different levels. Pulling a single redeeming value from this game would be harder than being thrown in the ring and facing a bull myself. From top to bottom Toro is a miserable failure. Making a bullfighting simulator video game is hard enough, since the idea doesn’t really translate into video game mechanics that well. If someone made a bird watching simulator, it probably would be darn-near impossible to pull off. But maybe if the game was gorgeous, immersive, and well designed, it could find a niche small audience. It’s the same for a bullfighting sim, maybe it could work if done right. But that is certainly not this game, all of Toro reeks of complete bullshit.

The most important thing in any video game is the gameplay itself. It needs to be fun and have depth. If it’s a puzzle game, it has to inspire and give the player “eureka” moments of joy. If it’s a fighting game, it needs to have complex but fulfilling actions that give the player a sense of achievement. If it’s a shooter, it needs to feel crisp and give the player satisfaction with every pull of the trigger. Every game in every genre needs to have fun deep gameplay. Toro falls flat in its face in this regard. To face the bull you do two things, call the bull towards you, and then press a couple buttons to do a “pass”, which is a style of move to avoid the bull. That’s it. Call the bull, double tap X. Call the bull, press X and B, call the bull, double tap X again. Often there are times when I failed to time it correctly, but the bull ran right through me. Other times it should have worked just fine but I was run over for who knows why. This goes on until you enrage the bull, and you do this for three minute rounds.

If you successfully avoid the bull after a few runs, the game goes into a clumsy quick time event. In this event the game doesn’t change at all, you don’t do a cool move or anything different in any way. The bull and your character look exactly like they did when you were doing normal passes with your double X nonsense. As you successfully press the button for the quick time event, the bull runs right by you and you wave your flag just like normal. Why is there a quick time event when nothing changes? Why am I not still playing the game normally? I honestly don’t see the point. In a normal game, in a good game, a quick time event is in place of something that cannot be done in the normal gameplay. For example, let’s say you’re playing a star wars game as a Jedi. In the normal gameplay you can attack with your lightsabor, dodge and parry, use the force, and jump about. However, what if you are going up against an AT-AT Walker? (A giant walking tank) Well, the developer can choose to use a quick time event for something like this. Get close enough to the Walker and jump underneath it, suddenly the game tells you to press A, if done so correctly your Jedi starts climbing up the leg of the Walker! Now press B, your Jedi reflects a blaster shot from a nearby enemy while continuing to run up the leg! Now click A, your Jedi flips in the air and slices the power source of the Walker and it explodes with epic glory! This is what quit time events are for. Yes, the developer could have programmed it so you’d just slash away at the legs of the Walker till it falls. But it might be more satisfying and more fun to allow the player to do new and thrilling moves to take down the enemy with flashiness. Jedi’s can do some really crazy stuff can’t they? Now as soon as this quick time event is over, the game will go back to the normal, yet still rewarding gameplay with your saber in hand. But for Toro, the quick time event is literally the same thing as the normal gameplay. In my Star Wars example, it would be like if in the middle of fighting off stormtroopers with your lightsaber, the game goes into a quick time event were you just kill more stormtroopers with your lightsaber. What’s the point?

If the bull “gores” you, nothing happens. You’re in game character doesn’t get hurt. You don’t have a life meter. There’s not injury. There’s nothing. Even the sound effect is pathetic. If the bull gores you, it sounds like someone throwing a tennis ball against a brick wall. There’s a small noise and the crowd makes an “oooh” reaction. Then you get right back up and continue tormenting the bull. IT’S A GIANT 1,500 POUND BEHEMOTH WITH SPEARS ATTACHED TO ITS SKULL! Yet you get run over by it over and over and over and shrug it off like it’s a freakin’ bag of cotton candy. They call it GORE for a reason don’t they? There’s no suspense in trying to avoid the monster. There’s no satisfaction in fighting him off. It’s like you’re playing bumper cars or something, oh wait it’s nothing like that at all, bumper cars is actually fun.

The first and third rounds play exactly the same; call the bull, double tap x, occasional boring quick time event. The second and fourth rounds are more quick time events that last only about five seconds. In round three you places cones on the back of the bull, the quick time event does all the work. And in the final round you stab the bull with a sword, the quick time event again doing the work. It’s strange however since you don’t see the bull once you thrust the sword. As soon as you finish the quick time event, a small crosshair appears, but it’s another ridiculous design choice because the crosshair is always at the perfect spot as soon as it starts. You don’t need to line up anything, just press A as soon as the cross hair appears and you’re all set. And when you do hit the bull, instantly the bull is out of the picture and the screen pans to your bullfighter who is soaking in the applause. Maybe they didn’t want to look cruel? Maybe they didn’t want to do the work to show the stabbed bull? Either way it feels empty and strange and unrewarding.

Speaking of empty, that’s a perfect word to describe something that is hard to put into words about Toro, but I’ll do my best. The game is just so quiet and empty. There are seconds that go by where there is literally no sound whatsoever. To go along with the horrid graphics, which I’ll talk about shortly, this emptiness creates an almost eerie sense of loneliness. There’s no life in this game. There’s no heart. It’s not to say that the developers didn’t create the game with heart, it just doesn’t come out in the final product at all. Hearing the same sound effects over and over started to drive me mad! The tennis ball sound when I get gored, the same “hut” every time I call the bull, the same exact sound of the crowd cheering for 2 seconds and then instantly disappearing again is repetitive and obnoxious at best.

After completing matches you unlock more bullrings to fight in and more costumes to wear. The customization is lackluster. While character customization is sometimes a great way to make the player feel involved, if it’s not fleshed out it can actually push the player away from that emersion. There is just one face to choose from, a few different hair styles and colors, and different lengths of sideburns that they comically call facial hair. Why can’t a pick between a handful of faces? I understand they want to make the game look in-line with what real bullfighters look like, so no Amish-style beard allowed. But why have customization at all then? Other than your actual character, there are several costumes to choose from once you unlock them. These look fine and you can adjust their colors.

Once unlocked, there are two mini-games to play. For 2 seconds anyway, they are more fun than the real game, but after those two seconds you realize they are as repetitive and boring as a Dora the Explorer episode. I GET IT YOU’RE THE FREAKIN’ MAP YOU DON’T GOTTA SAY IT 74 TIMES! But an episode of Dora is still 700 million times more entertaining than Toro. The first mini game had some promise; you play as the bull, build up power, and launch the bullfighter into the sky hundreds of feet. It’s funny the first and maybe second time but that’s it. Again they have the exact same sound effects over and over and there’s no strategy or fun in the gameplay. Once you do it a couple times there’s no reason to try it again. What am I saying there’s no reason to try it in the first place! The second mini game you play as the bull again, you run down a hallway with double doors at the end. You aim the bull left or right to make it through the doorway and you press, “A, B, X, or Y”, whatever it asks you to press, to open the doors. Three major problems. One, it’s obvious you’re not moving the bull, you’re actually moving the entire screen left or right and it just looks offsetting. Two, it’s like a dumbed down even more boring and repetitive and ridiculously easy version of flappy bird. And three, you can cheat the game. It asks you to press a button, but in reality you can press any button you want as long as you press the correct one as well. Meaning you can just continually press all four of the buttons nonstop and you will always open the doors and run through, there’s no penalty for pressing the wrong ones.

The graphics in Toro literally the worst I’ve ever seen on a console post 2000. And who cares if a game doesn’t look that great in 1997, that was the technology of the day. This is 2015! I could easily compare the graphics of Toro to the Sega Dreamcast, and that’s not hyperbole. There are Dreamcast games that look better than Toro. I think that really sums it up just fine, but for the sake of explanation I’ll put it this way. The animations are appalling. The textures and details are nonexistent. 99% of the crowd doesn’t move, making the 1% that does move stand out in the worst way possible. There bullfighter and the bull’s faces don’t move at all, frozen in a perpetual state of stupidity. The sound effects are actually almost creepy. I don’t want to continue, it’s painful for my finger tips to express it all.

Toro is a mess. I don’t even want to call it a video game. I’d rather succumb to Chinese water torture than play another minute of this abomination. I probably shouldn’t be putting this on the internet for the world to see, but if anyone wants to torture me, make me play Toro. Within seconds I’ll be on the floor balling my eyes out and telling you everything you need to know. It might sound harsh, but Toro is that bad of a game. I’m ashamed that the game is on the Xbox One. It shouldn’t even be free to play let alone a game someone would need to purchase to play. The Xbox team should be embarrassed for letting this game enter its marketplace. Whole consoles, like the Wii for example, have truly suffered due to shovelware. The entire gaming industry fell apart due to shovelware in the video game crash of 1983. Toro does teach what bullrighting is about. It has information of the different types of bulls, the different passes that are performed and what the “sport” is like. But if you want any of that information, look on the internet, in books, or wherever. But stay away from Toro. To be blunt, the game should be gored by a bull and left to rot in video game obscurity as one of the worst games in video game history.

• FINAL VERDICT

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Cost
$59.99
Format
Retail and Digital
Size
25.42 GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed], PS4, PC

Release Date
5/19/15
Developer
CD Projekt RED
Publisher
Warner Bro
Modes
Single Player

Witcher 3 is a 3rd person action RPG from CD Projekt RED. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt you play Geralt a Witcher. This means it’s your job to hunt down rare and dangerous monsters in the world, well at least as long as someone is paying you to do it.

If you are a true completionist then prepare for the long haul. Ideally you already live in your mom’s basement and she is willing to bring you Funyuns on a moments notice because this game is PACKED. It’s hard to describe the shear scope of the game. Games keep talking about making bigger and bigger maps but then they fail to fill them with anything enjoyable to do. Not so with The Witcher 3. There are quests and activities in every nook and cranny of this game. I’m 67 hours into it and not only am I not getting bored but I don’t even feel like I’m halfway done. These are not just go fetch me a crate quests, everything has cutscenes and decisions and you feel like what you did before this moment has helped define what you are doing now and why you are doing it.

Just a small portion of one of the maps

The combat is very satisfying and very much skill based. Every creature has very specific attacks, defenses and weaknesses. It’s extremely important to make use of all your abilities and a player who is familiar with dodging and parrying during combat can defeat a much higher level opponent through pure skill. Although a monster may be able to 1 hit kill you, the fact that if you use the right equipment with the right Signs you could still win that battle and I really enjoy that aspect of trying to take on a really hard fight and managing to win.

Let’s talk about everything you have at your disposal during a battle. You have 2 swords, one for humans and one for monsters. You have five magical abilities, your Signs, and for me two of these really stood out as amazing. Igni, which is your fire attack, is amazing in battle against 90% of enemies. Burn damage is massive and it creates a stagger effect on enemies allowing you to add on attacks. The other beast Sign is Axii. This is a mind attack. On basic monsters and humans you can stun them in place or even convince them to attack their friends. Against monsters it’s a nice slow down effect. The remaining three are Quen, a shield, Aard, a telekinetic blast and Yrden a trap spell. They all have their places in the game and all are useful.

Toe to toe with a Griffin

This leads us to Alchemy. Alchemy brings us bombs to throw, potions to take, oils to add to your swords for bonuses and decoctions which are monster specific bonuses. The Alchemy system is both a strength and a weakness. I applaud them for creating this entire system of bonus potions and oils but it’s almost too complex. I fight my first Griffin and get a Alchemy item that allows me to create a potion so that the next time I fight a Griffin I’ll have a little bit of an advantage. They vary but usually something like I do 10% more damage to Griffins. That sounds great doesn’t it! The problem is I also have to find the recipe to actually make the potion, and then I need to find the rest of the ingredients that will make the potion. Then I need to actually find another Griffin to fight and make sure I apply the potion and the oil and the decotition and it just becomes a LOT of work for a minor bonus. I could spend hours getting all the parts and making the items and only ever fight 1 more Griffin the entire game.

On the flip side, if I really want to do all that Alchemy work then the Skills Tree just adds and adds and adds bonuses. There is a skill called Refreshment that at max skill level heals 25% of HP on each potion use. So not only get the potion’s benefits, but also do a major heal. There are a load of skills that do a load of great things. But don’t think you are just going to get every skill and be a god among men. First off you get 1 skill point per level and levels do not come easy. Experience is really earned in the Witcher 3 and it take a lot of time to develop your character. Then there is the fact that abilities are only helping you if you place them in active slots on your character of which there are only a few places.

So you’ve made all these potions and just used them in battle against a Rock Golem. Do we have to search the land for more ingredients to replenish our stock? NO. You Meditate. When you meditate in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt you replenish all your bombs, potions, etc (and heal on anything but the highest difficulty) for the cost of just 1 alcohol. Yes, if you have a beer in your inventory when you Meditate you get everything back. 1 beer equals 3 bombs, 2 potions and whatever else you used up to this point. It’s a pretty big stretch immersion wise and meditate’s story problems don’t stop there. The process is, Geralt sits down wherever he might be and you select how much time will pass. Meditate is also used to speed up time if you need to meet someone at a specific time. Like it’s mid morning and your contact only shows up at Midnight. So I select 6 hours to pass. As I sit down there is a dwarf walking in front of me. Now I get up 6 in-game hours later and that dwarf is exactly where he was when I sat down right in stride. NPCs that would arrive or leave during that time do so, but anyone who is valid for the full range doesn’t appear to have passed any time at all. Just a immersion problem.

Game looks amazing

There is a full card game to play also called Gwent. Apparently its only the rage with merchants and traders as they are willing to play with you but no one on the street seems interested. It’s a valid sales strategy that they are willing to demo a game they want to sell you cards for but it’s reach so far appears to be Barons and Witchers. It’s a fun little game that carries the major problem with any game made to be simple. There is no cost to play a card so the game is just about getting the best, most powerful cards which in itself is probably the longest and most time consuming quest in the game.

The problems on the Witcher 3 are minor annoyances that really only come up because the game is so huge you are bound to find things that just don’t feel right to you. Swimming in 3rd person games is one of my top pet peeves in the world and Geralt is just as bad a swimmer as every other game in the history of the world. Getting out of the water is a insanely frustrating exercise where you the player are trying to figure out what 1×1 pixel on the shoreline that CD Projekt RED wants you to get out at.

Overall CD Projekt RED has made an amazing game where even a straight main quest only playthrough is going to net you a LOT of content. Try to take in everything, and that time played counter is going to skyrocket. All of the game’s issues are cosmetic and Witcher 3 has one of the most advanced and varied combat systems I’ve played in a while.

• FINAL VERDICT

ArcaniA: The Complete Tales

Cost
$29.99
Format
Retail & Digital
Size
5.80 GB
Available On
PS4 [Reviewed]

Release Date
5/12/15
Developer
Spellbound Entertainment
Publisher
Nordic Games
Modes
Single Player

Arcania aka Arcania Gothic 4 was originally released on last gen consoles and PCs back in 2010 and a year later on PS3 with an expansion attached. Now released on next gen with said expansion, does it have improved visuals and game play that most of these re-makes promise? Short answer, no! In a time where definitive/remaster/ultimate editions are the fad in the early days of the next gen life cycle, this shouldn’t be considered to fall into that category. Graphically it has got the whole budget look to it; character models are average and lip syncing is woeful almost as bad as the actors’ voice work itself. It’s a shame as the setting is probably the best looking thing in the game. That’s not to say Spellbound Entertainment are trying to package the game as an upgrade on the last gen version it just seems to be a straight port.

But lets not be too negative. When swaggers asked me if I could review the game in some ways I was more excited to do so than with the previous 2 games I had reviewed. Both of those were game genres I had played previously or had an interest in. Arcania is not and although it wasn’t something I would normally buy and/or play I was pleasantly surprised when I started it. The game is very user friendly when it comes to teaching you what you can do, weapon uses, skill assignment, general combat and more. Being a total novice to this genre I was quickly up to speed with the games mechanics and felt comfortable on the journey ahead.

Starting up you play an un-named hero, initially in a peaceful village with much to look forward to. Tragedy strikes and the hero’s quest soon becomes one of revenge and self discovery. Going back to the acting the performance wasn’t enough to make me invest in the character but the story in general was quite interesting and I was soon doing various tasks leading toward the eventual goal. It was refreshing to also have a system in place where your level didn’t prevent you from accessing certain weapons or magic. Levelling up is still key as it makes your character stronger but it was never at the forefront of my priorities.

Trophy/achievement wise you would normally expect an RPG to be either crazy hard or very time consuming. This is a little bit of both. The trophy for completing the game on the hardest difficulty (Conqueror) seems to ease up as you progress, make use of dodging enemies and using ranged attacks wherever possible. According to those that have got the platinum/100% you’re looking at 30-40 hours, which admittedly isn’t as bad as other RPG games but given the handful of missable trophies and a point of no return care must be taken if you want to do it all in one play through.

• FINAL VERDICT

Nero

Cost
$19.99 / £15.99
Format
Digital
Size
8 GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed]

Release Date
05/15/15
Developer
Storm in a Teacup
Publisher
Storm in a Teacup
Modes
Single player

Nero is Storm in a Teacup’s first game and they describe it as a first person puzzle / visual novel. Does Storm in a Teacup’s first outing hit all the right notes?

Right from the word go, you can tell this game is visually stunning. The colours are vibrant, the environment is enchanting and even the wildlife are beautiful in their own weird way. Even in the dullest areas of the game, there are still pockets of bright, neon colours, which really make the visuals pop. When I started up the game, watching the opening cut scene made me smile. I really thought I was in for something really special.

Truly stunning visuals.

That feeling soon dissipated when I got off the boat and began to control my character. I decided to look around at the amazing environment and my disappointment began. The frame rate seems extremely low especially when looking around with the right analogue stick. I started to move my character forward and the movement was unbearably slow. A few minutes went by whilst I was walking through the first little town area before a tip popped up on screen advising you can run with RB. Unfortunately, even with the aid of an unlimited run the pace was still too slow. You spend vast majorities of your time just “running” in between puzzles, so the game really could have done with some extra movement speed.

Other than running around you gain the ability to make these orbs of light which you can fire in front of you to unlock doors, activate switches etc and a little further on in game you gain another hooded figure who acts as your companion who you can direct to stand and move wherever you want them to, to help solve the puzzles.

During your time exploring you will need to look out for little picture frames which act as your collectibles in Nero. Each picture frame contains a fragment of a picture which symbolises the story being told for that particular area.

Something that Nero is brilliant at is telling a story. It isn’t full of plot twists or shock moments, but right from the beginning I was hooked. If you want to hear all of the story, then you’re going to have to complete all of the puzzles the game has to offer. Throughout the game you will encounter floating paragraphs which feed you bits of information filling in the story for you. After most puzzles are completed the Narrator will further expand on the story, making a great experience and one of the more original storytelling ideas.

I really enjoyed reading these floating paragraphs.

The game is split into 4 different areas for you to explore and even with you searching high and low for every collectible and completing all the puzzles, you’ll be very lucky to get more than 3 hours worth of gameplay. Considering the current price, that does not equate to much bang for your buck.

As far as the achievements list goes, if you find all the collectibles and solve all the puzzles you will pretty much complete the list. The only exception being an achievement which requires you to play the Hospital level on a Thursday for a specific meal to show up in the canteen.

Nero shows a lot of promise. It’s storytelling was superb, the visuals were stunning especially considering this was a self-published first outing for Storm in a Teacup it is just a shame the gameplay couldn’t match those standards. It is too difficult to look past the annoyingly low frame rate and tedious gameplay. Add to that how short the game is and it leaves you feeling disappointed after expecting so much in the beginning.

Nero is definitely an experience worth playing through to experience the story, but if you need some satisfying gameplay, look elsewhere or wait for a price drop.

A digital copy of Nero was provided by the Developer for the purpose of this review

• FINAL VERDICT

Thomas was Alone

Cost
$9.99
Format
Digital
Size
465 MB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed], PS4, PS3, Wii U, Windows, PS Vita, iOS, Android

Release Date
11/21/2014
Developer
Curve Studios
Publisher
Curve Digital
Modes
Single PLayer

Thomas was alone… what a strange title for a video game. When I first heard this name, I instantly assumed it was an indie game, which I often truly enjoy. And on top of that, I thought it was probably an exploration game. I thought of Journey. Or maybe a first-person exploration game like the upcoming “Everyone’s Gone to Rapture”. I certainly wasn’t thinking about a narrative side-scrolling platforming puzzle game with rectangles. But that’s exactly what Thomas was alone is. It’s a puzzle game with clever ideas, but not enough substance.

The basic explanation of the game is that there are multiple different rectangles that you can control. At first you just start out with one, and the goal is to get to the end of the level. About every five levels the game introduces another rectangle to the mix. Each rectangle is different in color and size. The player controls the rectangles like a platformer, pressing a button to switch between each rectangle on the fly. Each rectangle moves at different speeds and jumps at different heights. In the world the only pitfalls are things like water and spikes.

The first three rectangles don’t vary enough. They are just different sizes and height which makes for some very boring puzzles. Early on the answers to the puzzles were all far too similar. One rectangle can jump extremely high; the other can barely jump at all. So use the one rectangle as a stepping stool and the short rectangle jumps slowly up like a staircase. It’s boring and not creative at all. Eventually there are more rectangles that join the party and they switch things up much more. There’s a HUGE rectangle that can float and be like a boat for the others. And there’s another long flat rectangle that acts like a trampoline and launches the others in the air. The puzzles get slightly more interesting once these rectangles come into fruition.

Now strangely enough, each rectangle has a name and personality. This is where one of my major complaints comes into play. I love character driven games. I love a game that has personality. I love dialog between characters and character development. And Thomas is Alone tackles a lot of these ideas. However I believe they fall very short. The characters in this game are little rectangles. That’s right, the rectangles that you use to jump around and float and climb are actually characters in the game. Yet they have no faces, no expression, no voice, nothing that helps them stand out other than their size and color. Thomas is red, Chris is short and orange, John is tall and yellow, Claire is big and blue, and so on and so forth. These characters are developed and have personality, but for me, it was so hard to let these little rectangles effect me emotionally in any way. Think of the game “Threes”. It‘s a simple card puzzle game based on numbers. If Threes could have existed before video games, it would be similar to Sudoku, with just simple numbers. Numbers are just numbers; they have no life at all. But since Threes is a video game, it can do much more. In a simple yet brilliant design move, each of the numbers in Threes has a face, voice, expression, and character. It’s a small touch. But when you create the number 48 and it’s a little bucktoothed face that says, “Hey Guys!” it instantly make the game have so much more emotion and life. I laugh every time I can’t figure out my next move and I hear one of them sigh and say, “I’m booored”. Why couldn’t Thomas was Alone have this type of detail? Thomas is supposed to be a light-hearted rectangle who just wants friends. And Chris is kind of a jerk who doesn’t like anyone at first. So how about giving Thomas a happy go lucky grin and as he moves along why can’t Chris squint his eyes and look at him with disdain as he jumps over his head? I know we can use our imagination. But this is a video game. The possibilities are endless. Don’t restrict the game in such a way that it takes away from the experience. I know that the developer put time and effort into wanting to create characters that developed and grew on each other as time went by. And this could have been pulled off so much better if these little guys weren’t simply quadrilaterals without a face.

The way that the story told is through a narrator. The narrator talks for the characters themselves, knowing their feelings and thoughts. The characters never talk to one another. This I don’t have a problem with, I like this move. Let’s say in this world that these little rectangles can’t talk, but they still have motives, thoughts, ideas, and emotions. I would have liked it if we could just see these emotions. It’s hard to really care about anyone when they are just shapes with colors. Plus, the narrator in my opinion gets extremely irritating. He’s a British narrator, and when he just talks normally it sounds fine. But when he tries to be funny, by changing the complexion of his voice or talking fast or things like that, he sounds extremely annoying and not funny at all. I would have preferred if the game was entirely in text over hearing the narrator’s aggravating voice.

The puzzles themselves are far too easy in the early goings. Until “Claire” is introduced, the game is entirely about jumping and climbing only. And Claire manages to change that just slightly, as now the game is more jumping and climbing, just with Claire’s floating ability thrown in there. The puzzles’ difficulty does heighten to some degree with the trampoline rectangle, Laura. But the game just takes too long to get interesting in its puzzles. And still, the puzzles are unexciting and not creative. The goal is always to just get to the end. And the way to get there always involved jumping on each other, pressing buttons, and not falling in water. There are a few levels that really take advantage of the different rectangles abilities and make for a bit of fun, but those levels are much too rare.

The graphics in Thomas is Alone are as simple as can be. I mentioned earlier about how I feel the characters could have used more personality, emotion, etc. The game is far too bland and lifeless. It’s really just a game with a bunch of squares and rectangles; it looks like an unfinished prototype.

Overall Thomas is Alone is a game that disappoints me on multiple levels. It’s visually ugly, the narrator is obnoxious, and the level design is uninspired. I want to care about the story and the characters, but the way the story is presented and the fact that the main characters are emotionless rectangles makes it just so hard to stay invested. Thomas should have stayed alone, away from the consumer, until the game was much more polished and filled with more life, meaning, and personality.

• FINAL VERDICT

Toren

Cost
$9.99
Format
Digital
Size
4.91 GB
Available On
PS4 [Reviewed], PC

Release Date
5/12/15
Developer
Sword Tales
Publisher
Versus Evil
Modes
Single Player

Sword Tales a little known Brazilian indie developer brings you its first foray into computer games with Toren. A very spiritual, imaginative title with action, puzzles, platforming and sights to behold.

Toren

You play as Moonchild a girl that is seemingly destined to learn from her mistakes and discover herself as she explores and climbs the tower known as Toren. As you ascend the tower you find yourself solving mostly simple puzzles, fighting monsters and discovering new weapons and abilities in dream sequences to make you stronger and better equipped in your quest. Many people likened this game to the hugely popular Ico and Shadow of Colossus games. Having never played either I went into this game not knowing what to expect. Graphically, while not at the level you’d expect of next gen, it’s by no means horrible either and some of the design is really impressive and you can’t help but think with a little more polish this could have been a real gem. The scale of the game did impress me though and this was reflected in the game’s size. A soft soundtrack accompanies Toren and the game tells its story with both on screen text and in Moonchild’s actions themselves.

The Life Tree

Overall it’s quite a short game, I completed the main story in little over an hour and with no difficulty levels to choose from any deaths were solely my own fault. In fact the game was an ideal length in my opinion. Playing through I did miss three trophies on my way to the 100%, Enlightenment, Little Monk and Dark Knight. The first focuses on completing the life tree which you do as you enter the dream world through various shrines dotted through your travels. I however missed a few on my initial run through, luckily you can use chapter select to get what you miss. The other two are for collecting a mask and upgrading your sword both done by backtracking. So if you pay attention and check areas thoroughly you will be OK. Additionally the North American version stacks (separate trophy list) with the European one so so for all you trophy hoarders (guilty as charged) this is a nice way to boost your count.

• FINAL VERDICT

Lifeless Planet

Cost
$19.99
Format
Digital
Size
1.11 GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed]

Release Date
5/13/15
Developer
Stage 2 Studios
Publisher
Stage 2 Studios
Modes
Single Player

Lifeless Planet is a 3rd person adventure game made by Stage 2 Studios. It tells the tale of a astronaut who has crashed landed on a remote planet and his harrowing tale of trying to get back to Earth alive.

You could also describe Lifeless Planet as a walking and jumping simulator with an occasional repetitive puzzle thrown in at random intervals. When I say walking and jumping I mean you will spend roughly 90% of this four hour game simply maneuvering yourself to the next puzzle. And puzzle is meant in it’s loosed terminology. Typically you are either moving a bomb to blow open a path forward or you are using a robotic arm to move some alien material from the ground to the power area. The robotic arm’s sections put you into a first person view where your job is simply to grab a space rock and move it about 2 feet higher. I was ok with this in the context that the space rock must be highly dangerous to touch, but not 2 minutes later you’ll have to start scouring the area to find these rocks and carry them to the activators. So you carry this rock to the base and then need to use a robotic arm to move the rock the final foot and a half higher.

Jumping is aided by having a jet pack that gives you a little extra boost to get to the next platform. Quite often you will come to these large platform areas where the jumps are 4x as large. The process is always the same. Find a canister of super jetpack boost juice and then start jumping. You’ll know your done because your super jetpack boost juice will just suddenly run out. Always at the exact second you’ve made your last jump. There is no sense of danger, of having to get the jumps exactly right because if you need it, the boost will always be there until you don’t need it any more.

Lifeless Planet suffers from the same problem as a lot of ID@ games in that you get a flood of new abilities and puzzles in the first half of the game and then they realize they still need about 2 more hours of content and it’s all copy/paste for the final half. To be honest at that 2 hour mark I was ready for this game to be done. But it just keeps going having you do the same things again and again.

This is about as exciting the environment gets

The story is a convoluted mess to say the least. It’s all played out in a combination of voiceovers and recorded messages all delivered in the most boring monotone you can imagine. Your character embarked on this space mission, which took 15 years by the way, to get away from Earth because he lost his wife. But then it ends up he didn’t lose his wife and now he wants to get back to Earth because he suddenly remembers how much he loved Earth. And let me tell you no matter how much you hate Earth, you’re going to miss it pretty quick with the boring landscape monotonous landscape of this mystery planet. Plus the Russians got there first, but they did it through some portal they found so a big thanks to the Russians because we spent 15 f-ing years in a spacecraft and they just walked through some space portal. Then don’t forget the space alien chick that I can’t decide if she’s just some manifestation of your wife or a real alien and if she is trying to help or actually hinder you. It really just becomes a big huge mess. I won’t even get into the let down of the finale because I don’t want to spoil it but if you don’t stop and go What The F please send me a message explaining why that’s a good ending and why it makes sense in any way, shape or form.

There are collectibles in the form of messages and recorded audio tracks. But there are also minerals to find. Not strange space rocks mind you, Earth minerals. So as you are running out of oxygen and being chased by some alien it’s important to go WAY off the main path so that you can find some coal and reminisce about how Earth has coal too.

Graphically the game is great. Your space suit is highly detailed and the surrounding areas are smooth and clear of graphical defects. It’s actually pretty amazing how well the ground areas are rendered. I never had a single incident of clipping in my playthrough and my astronaut only got caught in a dead jump zone once where I had to reset checkpoint and frankly I was WAY WAY WAY off course when it happened.

This is considered the Premier Edition of Lifeless Planet. One of the big additions to Premiere Edition is that they recorded a whole series of Audio Logs in Russian, but I still need to read the PDA log to understand what is going on so it seems like a low priority addition when maybe some more exiting gameplay elements could of been added instead. For $20 there is just too little going on in Lifeless Planet to justify playing the game.

• FINAL VERDICT

Project Root

Cost
$9.99 / £7.99
Format
Digital only
Size
0.76GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed], PS4, PS Vita

Release Date
04/29/15
Developer
OPQAM
Publisher
Reverb Triple XP
Modes
Single player

The Xbox One is a little light in the field of SHMUPS, which isn’t right. Everyone needs more SHMUPS in their gaming life, that’s just a fact. Project Root, Developed by Opqam is described as an open world, over-head shooter, with countless enemies swarming your ship in true SHMUP fashion.

In Project Root you play as pilot Lance Rockport piloting the F-72 Zonda, trying to overturn an evil doing energy company, Prometheus Corp. That is pretty much all I can tell you about the story. If there was any voice overs or some sort of cut scenes to watch, it would probably be a bit more engaging, but reading page after page of a conversation really isn’t my thing.

Wall after wall of text

During each mission you get little pop ups in the corner of the screen with an image of who is talking and tiny, tiny words…which you are supposed to read whilst keeping the enemy ships at bay. The one time I did stop to read what was going on, I died. Which sent me back to the beginning of the level, all my earned XP lost and 20+ minutes of tediously going from objective to objective to destroy this and that having to be done over again.

The enemies you face are split between different aircraft that spew tonnes of bullets and rockets at you from every direction and ground forces that pretty much do the same. There’s a cursor in front of your ship at all times showing you where your ground attacks will land, which helps gauge where you are aiming. I found myself just holding down the LT and RT (ground attack and normal attack) for the whole mission and doing a lot of spinning to hit the flying enemies that tend to circle you. To say I got a bit dizzy at times is an understatement. I don’t think I played it for more than 45 minutes at a time without needing a break.

The game is split into 8 missions of increasing difficulty and length. Each mission consists of several main objectives which are shown in the HUD at the top left and several secondary objectives. They will task you with finding out what strange signals are, destroying a certain building, going somewhere else, destroying another building, going somewhere else…you get my drift.

For each level you start with 2 lives. Sometimes enemies or building will leave behind an extra life for you when you destroy them, but it seems to be random. Like I mentioned above, if you lose all your lives, you lose all progress for that mission and have to start over. Towards the end of the game this can be extremely frustrating. I spent close to half an hour slowly plodding through a mission I had already failed once only to be killed right at the end. Granted, I’m not the greatest SHMUP gamer in the world but with the game being so tedious it is very difficult to want to go through the same mission all over again.

If you’re like me, you’ll be seeing this screen…a lot.

Your ship starts with hardly any speed, power or armour and is pretty much as useful as a paper airplane, but it can be upgraded. You can upgrade the ships speed, handling, standard and special weapons, airframe and defense. The only way to upgrade these attributes is with XP which is earned from completing missions. If you fail the mission, you lose all earned XP. Anything you can destroy has a potential to drop power-ups in the shape of Homing Missiles, Rocket Packs, Laser Beams and Disruptors (my personal favourite). Without the power-ups the game would be extremely difficult and keeping Disruptors available for the tougher enemies that fire a million and one bullets at you is certainly recommended.

The Disruptor at work.

My biggest gripe with Project Root is most definitely the invincible enemies that appear. On countless occasions I would be firing at a ship that would get stuck in a wall. Fair enough, that can happen sometimes, but you can’t hit said ship but they can hit you and if you need to destroy all enemies to continue on the mission, you have to restart because you can’t fire through mountains. If it happened once in a blue moon you could overlook it. But it doesn’t.

Regarding the achievements for Project Root, they are very straightforward. The majority of them will come for just completing the game. Although, you will have to play through all the missions 3 times (once on each difficulty) as for some strange reason, the achievements do not stack. All in all, if you can overcome the boredom and frustrating glitches the completion isn’t a difficult one.

Project Root had me excited. SHMUPS are fast, fun and exciting games to play that keep you on the edge of your seat trying to keep up with the frenetic gameplay. Unfortunately Project Root just doesn’t deliver. It’s slow paced, no checkpoint gameplay left me bored and uninterested. Add into the mix the poorly executed XP system and the glitches giving enemies invincibility and it leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

• FINAL VERDICT

Shovel Knight

Cost
$14.99 / £11.99
Format
Digital
Size
0.24 GB
Available On
Xbox ONE [Reviewed], PS4, PS3, PC, Wii U, 3DS, PS Vita

Release Date
04/29/15
Developer
Yacht Club Games
Publisher
Yacht Club Games
Modes
Single Player

Shovel Knight is a 2-D side scrolling platformer with an 8-bit visual style developed by Indie Developers Yacht Club Games. You play as Shovel Knight, a courageous, heroic Knight on a quest to stop the evil Enchantress and save his soul mate Shield Knight. Throughout the epic quest, you have to fight your way through the Knights of The Order of No Quarter, with each Knight having a unique style of attack for you to deal with.

One of Mole Knight’s more annoying attacks