Homefront: The Revolution (Xbox One) - Review

Homefront: The Revolution is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £44.99.

Unless you've been living under a rock you'll have heard a lot abut Homefront: The Revolution. Most likely, none of it has been good. From what I have read it has been the PS4 and PC versions which have been slammed the most. So I went into my Xbox One copy feeling grateful that I personally favour the XB1 pad.

With that said I still encountered some problems on the XB1 version and I'm gonna get them out of the way here. I don't usually approach a review in this way, but I feel like most people have come to a Homefront review already "knowing" how it's going to go. Many will have already made their mind up before reading anymore reviews based on what they've heard. And that's fine. But I just want to get the negative stuff out of the way so I can talk about what I did like about this game and end this review on a more positive note.

The biggest problem I encountered whilst playing Homefront: The Revolution was lag. The lag was pretty terrible actually and made it feel like a chore to continue playing rather than fun way to use my precious spare time. It lagged when I aimed through my scope, it lagged when I had an enemy in my sights so that the gunfire sound was playing but nothin else was actually happening. It lagged every single time I used the little locker/store thing or accepted a mission. If you're sitting down to play this game for a prolonged period of time this lag really starts to get on your nerves. I sat through two hours in one sitting and the pull to turn on another game was very strong, let's put it that way.

The graphics have been given a lot of crap and I honestly don't think they're bad. Whilst it is certainly not the prettiest game we have seen so far this gen it is by no means the ugliest (has everyone forgotten Toro?!). Nah I'm being unfair there, we shouldn't compare this to Toro, but my point stands. This game does not look like a previous-gem game at all and in places it was actually really nice looking. It's mostly down to the light usage I think, but I'll tweet out some screenshots after I've published this review and you can tell me what you think.

The load times are also terrible. I honestly wondered whether the game had crashed entirely. And the death animation is laughable, really. But that about wraps up the bad things I have to say about this game. Don't get me wrong, the lag especially, are pretty big bads but I'm sure that future patches will make all of these better. Now onto what I enjoyed!

The story is really interesting and the introduction sets it up perfectly. I couldn't wait to play and find out more (damn you lag!). The game is set in an open-world version of Philadelphia after the "Norks" (no, really. They're not big boobs, it is in fact slang for North Korean, apparently) have flipped a switch in all of our tech and invaded. Wandering around the city feels great, and actually captures that feeling of dread much better than The Division does. You feel oppressed. Nervous at what you might find around the next corner. The atmosphere is really fantastic.

The gun animation is great too. You can swap your load out on the fly, including attachments to your gun. Your avatar will lift it up and you press the button corresponding to the bit you want to change (scope, under-barrel etc). You then detach what is there and attach the new part. It's all very slick and the guns look fantastic. I'm a big fan of the hack mechanic too, which works a little bit like the hacking in Batman: Arkham Knight.

Overall this game is never going to win GOTY but it is a solid single player FPS experience with a great open-world to explore. Yeah there are big problems with lag at the minute, but I'm sure it will be patched eventually. And with the bad press this game has received it is already available for less than £35. In a few more weeks it'll likely be around the £25 mark and I think you should definitely think about snapping it up then.

6/10 TRY IT!

A copy was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Tower of Guns (Xbox One) - Review

Tower of Guns is out now on the Xbox One priced at £11.99.

When I first heard of Tower of Guns I expected it to be a tower defence game, a game type I really enjoy. Then I found out it was an FPS bullet-hell rogue-like in procedural environment, like Ziggurat, a game I have recently reviewed and loved. Tower of Guns had a LOT to live up to.

I'm gonna cut straight to it and say that Tower of Guns does not stand up next to Ziggurat at all favourably. Unfortunately Tower of Guns feels like a cheap attempt to cash in on any success Ziggurat may be having. And when you have one rogue-like procedural shooter, do you really need another?

The answer is of course no, one will suffice for most people so unless you are the biggest fan of this type of game to ever grace the planet you will likely only choose to buy one of these games. To make it easier for us they are both the same price.

Anyway let me get back to Tower of Guns for now. From the off the game feels cheap. I feel like this game may still have verged on the too expensive if it was priced at £7.99. The graphics aren't the greatest, the sound is just simply awful and the gunplay sin;t nearly as polished as I have come to expect from this type of game. It's unfortunate that I can;t really talk about Tower of Guns without talking about Ziggurat and how much better that game is. Ziggurat offered a polished foray into the world of the rogue-like. Tower of Guns on the other hand feels rushed and completely lacks even an iota of the polish of Ziggurat. With Ziggurat the gunplay was tremendous, aiming with pinpoint accuracy was a doddle, and fun to boot. Tower of Guns feels difficult to play, not because of the enemies, but because you feel like you are constantly wrangling against the controller.

As mentioned the graphics for this game are certainly sub-par, menus feel cheap and even the supposed to be humorous descriptions of the guns fall short of the mark. Tower of Guns is out of its depth, when really on the Xbox One market there shouldn't be much competition.

It pains me to say this but skip it please. This game offers no real value for money. If it was cheaper than Ziggurat I may have been able to say try it to the people who maybe can't afford Ziggurat. Pricing it at the same point seems like a really silly move, and I have no qualms pointing you towards my review of Ziggurat here http://dkplaysgames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/ziggurat-xbox-one-review.html and telling you that if this genre of game interests you then go and get Ziggurat instead.

1/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Destiny (Xbox One) - Review

I'm gonna start this by being totally honest with you. I didn't like Halo. In fact I'd go as far as to say I hated Halo. All of them. I kept trying them out and trying to like them but I just couldn't get along with it. The story interested me, but I just couldn't enjoy the gameplay.

So when everyone else started getting really excited about Destiny coming out I didn't listen. I thought that I wouldn't like it, and immediately wrote it off, thinking about saving my money for the upcoming Far Cry 4 instead. But we ended up with Destiny anyway. And I LOVE IT! Let me try to explain...

 I have a feeling that my enjoyment for this game comes from the fact that I ignored all the hype. I didn't read into it, I didn't even attempt to find out anything about it. So because of this when I first put it on I had no expectations. It had nothing to live up to for me, unlike many of the Xbox One games. And I honestly think this has been it's saving grace. There has since been a lot said about how disappointed a lot of people are with Destiny, a lot of people expected more. Like Watch Dogs it was massively hyped, had a good advertisement campaign and had many a gamer drooling at the mouth. And then, like Watch Dogs, for a lot of people it couldn't live up to that when it came to it.

So back to why I'm enjoying this game. First off this game is GORGEOUS! It really is. The worlds are beautiful and the kinda annoying load screens are nice to look at. You can customise your character by picking between three different classes and choosing whether they are male or female. The customisation is pretty good. There is enough choice, without there being too much.

The story in this game is where it is lacking. But I never expected it to be mind blowing anyway. The narrative is pretty sparse, and sometimes quite jarring. I actually felt like it was getting in the way more often than not. I didn't want a cutscene explaining why we were going somewhere, I just wanted to get there and kill some bad guys! I guess for me this game is just about having a bit of fun. Getting on it for half an hour of mindlessly blowing up some Dregs is good fun, and to be honest I don't need anything more from it.

The gameplay is what surprised me. I expected to hate it like I did Halo, but I don't. It feels good. The weapons feel substantial and I don't feel like it has the arcade-y feel that Halo does. Destiny reminds me a little of Diablo III, in that the need to get better gear really begins to take over. I LOVE getting new loot. And it can kinda feel like a grind in the same way that Diablo does - I don't mean boring, but like experience farming. It does feel pointless unless you get some cool shit and an EXP boost at the end really.

But I'm ok with that. Destiny is one of the first disc based release games that I would totally champion getting digitally, as it feels like that kind of game. It is very pick up and play, get on it for 20 minutes when you can't be bothered putting a disc in.

The biggest thing I hate about this game is the inability to pause. Don't get me wrong I understand why it is like this but still, when the postman knocks on it is annoying to not be able to pause!

But if you take it as a bit of fun, don't expect a mind-blowing narrative this game is a lot of fun. And isn't that all we want sometimes?

7/10 BUY IT!

Vampire Slayer FPS (XBLIG) Review

Vampire Slayer FPS is available now on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

Vampires are cool right? Well this game gives you the choice of playing as them or against them, either online or with bots and the biggest thing you need to know about this game is that you should BUY IT! There review complete!

Just kidding, obviously I'll give you more than that. So here are some details.

Upon loading this game I have to admit to feeling a little disappointed at first. The graphics are pretty bad. BUT I overlooked this for the moment to see what else this title had to offer and I'm so glad I did! I chose to play as a Slayer in my first bot-match. And it was pretty damn scary! This is a game which I felt gave real credit to how difficult vampires would be to kill. They are frightening! I found myself cowering in the corner for a good part of my first match because all I could hear was the vampires creepy noise and all down my screen was a list of my team-mates being decimated by the vamps. No fair!

I mustered up the courage and was basically met by a vampire who seemed to appear from nowhere. I came off worse in that meeting. Renewed though I kept trying and eventually I could almost hold my own against them, so it was time to try out the Vampires themselves.

I had my suspicions upon loading this game that the vampires would be pretty hard to master. How right I was. I found myself constantly overthrowing where I wanted to be and again, was coming off worse. I was dying continuously!

Anyway long story short I feel this game provides more than enough of a challenge for most gamers. It's great to pick up and play for a quick match, but at the same time you could sink hours into trying to master it. Yes the graphics are bad BUT the game isn't and at 80MSP what does it even matter. We spend more than that on a bar of chocolate. Skip the choc for today and treat yourself to this instead!

9/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Shark Attack Deathmatch (XBLIG) Review

Shark Attack Deathmatch is available now on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

 Again, I'm gonna jump straight into the point of this review. BUY THIS GAME! Seriously, this is a bloody good XBLIG title.
It has a online multiplayer mode, which is fantastic, and seemingly never empty. Jump on at any time and you will find someone playing.
The single player is good too. I know that this where a lot of people think this game falls down, but I'm not one of them. This mode is fantastic. It is really atmospheric and actually truly scary.
The graphics in this game are amazing, especially for an Indie game. The sharks, in particular are brilliant. These sharks are easily some of the best sharks I've come across, and seeing as I received Far Cry 3 for Christmas, that is high praise!

The game just feels right. Yes the aiming is difficult to get the hang of, but wouldn't you expect that seeing as you are shooting UNDERWATER?

This game is just pure fun. It is pretty scary when a shark attacks you, and this hasn't worn off for me even after sinking plenty of hours in. It's a game you can easily spend hours on and not get bored.

EVERYBODY should buy this game. Seriously. Especially if you're bored of cookie-cutter shooter doing the same old thing time and again. Hell, even if you don't normally like shooters, try this one out. You might like it!

9/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Demon House FPS (XBLIG) Review

Demon House FPS is currently available on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

This game had my interest from the moment I saw it. Which is unusual for me, I think this is probably only one of five Indie FPS's I have played. I normally stick to the bigger budget shooters. But this looked a little bit new so I definitely wanted to try it!
The games graphics are pretty good by XBLIG standards, some of the other games released are just atrocious. This one looks pretty good though, not amazing but not eye-achingly bad either. I have a feeling most people will recognise this game as looking Bioshock-esque and it's true it does look like a poorer man's Bioshock, especially the guns.
The game is about you, an alchemist, defeating an alchemist gone bad. He's making steam-powered machines that kill by putting dead people's souls in. Nothing that new here, but again not too tired.
The gameplay for me is where this game really shone. Yes the story feels kind of old and tired and there are plenty of shooters out there with better graphics as long as you're willing to pay the higher price tag. But this game plays really well. The controls are familiar to anyone who has played a shooter before so there isn't any need to bash the buttons at the beginning to see what does what. The enemies are varied and there are plenty of them. The game just feels smooth, even when there are multiple enemies gunning for you.

For 80MSP this game should definitely make an appearance on most people's game list. As I mentioned it's nothing new but it works pretty well. And 80MSP is peanuts. So just Try It and see :)

6/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.