Ori and The Blind Forest (Xbox One) - Review

Ori and The Blind Forest is out now priced at £15.99.

This game starts out with seriously the most captivating, breathtaking beautiful opening sequence ever. And there is NO dialogue. None whatsoever. I cannot honestly remember the last time I was so drawn into a game right off the bat like this. It is simply gorgeous.

The music is sublime, a real joy to listen to. So much so that I have just left the game on in the background whilst I make dinner. It's gorgeous and so so fitting to the game. Its emotive music at its very best and is without doubt better than having a narrative voice for this game.

Upon saying that though, I realise I am mistaken. There is a narrative voice. But it is one that makes no sense without reading the subtitles, that are wonderfully blended into the picture on screen. The story is told by a man with a very deep and lovely voice, who to my untrained ears speaks in complete gobbledegook. But, like everything else in this masterpiece of a game it is divine to listen too. This is a game woven together with such attention to detail it is hard to not fall completely in love with it.

One of the most captivating opening sequences ever

I think you'd have to have a heart of stone to not fall for Ori and Naru. I confess to feeling utterly heartbroken by the end of the opening sequence. Whilst so many games seem to be shunning the idea of creating a lasting relationship between player and character, this game gives you that by the bucketload. It has ALL THE FEELS.

I'm not going to ruin the story for you so lets move onto the gameplay. The beginning of the story sees you playing for a little while as Naru, the big fluffy thing cuddling Ori in the picture below. He moves just how he looks he would. He makes the controls feel a little slow and pretty heavy. This is something you may not notice until you take control of Ori, the little white rodent thingy. My kids took to calling him a rabbit fairy, so I'll go with that. Once you take control of Ori the controls become fast, responsive, bouncy and a little skittish. Just like the animal that you are controlling. Just another little thing that leads to me believing this to be one of the more polished games I've played this year.

The sweetest characters ever

The game is a platformer, albeit a beautifully packaged one, but we all know there's nothing really new to bring to a platformer. Expect to be executing a lot of jumps where you have to get the timing just right, the run up distance just right, or do as I do, which is closing your eyes and praying to the gaming Gods that you'll land Ori on the other side rather than in the pit of spikes awaiting you below. Ori and The Blind Forest immediately reminded of Limbo, and at first I wondered whether this was purely down to the shadowy creatures you can sometimes see at the forefront of the picture. But it isn't just that. This game is a lot about trial-and-error playing, just as Limbo was. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just something to bear in mind if you're not the type of gamer that can deal with multiple deaths. Some parts of this game are really incredibly difficult so you will die.

Gorgeous level design

The game does have a skill tree, which enhances all of Ori's skills once you have earned enough experience. Whilst this does attempt to bring something more to what is essentially a simple platformer I do feel like the game didn't necessarily need it, although it does feel good to see your progression in a succinct way. The Soul Link enables you to save your game at any point as long as you have enough energy to fill one of the little blue balls at the bottom of the screen. This is a great idea, but sometimes I was left having to redo what felt like large parts of the game because I hadn't had enough energy to complete a new Soul Link. Still though this isn't a negative, it just makes you more accountable for your (or Ori's) fate.

I am really struggling to think of anyone who wouldn't like this game. True you may not love it, but I think it'd be really difficult to profess that you dislike Ori and The Blind Forest. It is an amazing game, absolutely gorgeous  and a great Metroidvania style platformer. At £15.99 I would have said it might be bit pricey, but with the slew of games coming out at around the same price point and not offering as much I'd say it is definitely one of the fairer priced games of recent memory.

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

ScreamRide (Xbox One) - Review

ScreamRide is out now on the Xbox One and is priced at £29.99. Yeah, ouch! The price point is one of the main reasons for the slightly lower score given to this game. I feel really strongly about recommending games I feel are worth the money, and this just feels that it's been priced slightly too high, for what is essentially an arcade game. I think it is a dangerous sign of things to come on this gen that there are VERY few games that are less than £10 to download. When we consider that when Minecraft was released on the Xbox 360 at 1600MSP everyone thought that seems a little steep. Just because it hadn't been done before. If I spent 1200MSP on an arcade game I wanted it to be the best thing since sliced bread! So I always try to consider the price the game may have been on last gen before I say that the game offers value for money.

Anyway, let's get on with the review of the game. ScreamRide is fun. Billed as a 'spiritual sequel' to the amazing old PC game Rollercoaster Tycoon, I feel that in my mind at least it was almost set up for a fall. I LOVED Rollercoaster Tycoon. But I loved all the 'boring' things about it, the day to day running of the park, setting admission prices and hiring staff etc. ScreamRide is nothing like that at all. It takes all of that away and actually the only similarities between the two games are that they both contain coasters and you can build your own in a sandbox mode.

ScreamRide instead celebrates certain doom and destruction. There are three main game modes during the campaign - Scream Rider, Demolition and Engineer. Scream Rider sees you take control of a coaster on what is essentially a race track made out of roller coaster. You can use turbo, brake on the corners and lean into the bends to gain more turbo. There are blue parts of the track which sees you have to press a button at a key moment to earn more turbo too. This part of the game is really fun, but does get tired quite easily. The camera angle used is great, and it does feel like you can feel the speed that you're doing. My children watched me play this game and both squealed when we were going round a loop-the-loop or down a hill. You earn stars by completing challenges which range from getting a certain amount of points to derailing your coaster cart a certain amount of times whilst still scoring highly.

Demolition mode is like Angry Birds. You are given a set amount of carts to fire out of a revolving arm at buildings, screens, rings and trampolines. I am usually pretty awful at these types of games, and this game was no different. I struggled like mad to earn any of the commendations so I could progress. My timing is off with throwing the rem, seriously the amount of times I threw the carriage behind me rather than in front is ridiculous. Then if I did manage to shoot it the right way I still managed to miss the screens or whatever. I actually ended up getting my son to do some for me. He is that flukey kind of player that always manages to get a near perfect score when it seems like he is just throwing things haphazardly. He did really well on this game.

Engineer mode is basically a construction mode. You are given an almost complete track and told to finish it. You have to make the track reach certain lengths for the commendations and do so without losing any riders. This mode is really hard to control, or at least I found it to be so. The camera never really seems to go where you want it to go, making it difficult to place your track pieces. And my biggest problem with it is that it all feels pointless. It lacks the all out fun of being destructive for the sake of it, and it lacks the speed and finesse that the Scream Rider mode has. It just feels like it has been placed in for the sake of saying that it is like 'Rollercoaster Tycoon'. It isn't. Sandbox mode is exactly what you expect and might keep you interested for a little bit. But you will have to complete the game to unlock all the cool stuff for inside the sandbox. Without going through at least some of the story you will find it extremely difficult to enjoy sandbox mode.

Overall I feel like this game has priced itself out of the market slightly. It is polished, the graphics are nice and colourful, the music is good and it is fun but it is just too expensive! Priced around £15 and I may have been able to recommend it but for double that it feels like too much for me to say go and spend your hard earned cash on it. Wait for a sale, if it sounds like something you'd enjoy, but if you get bored easily then I'd say skip it.

4/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Tales from the Borderlands Episode One (Xbox One) - Review

Hopefully you all know me enough by now to know I am a massive fan of Telltale Games and all that they do. Well almost all that they do. Because it turns out that I am not a fan of their foray into the world of Pandora.

My favourite Telltale Game by far is The Wolf Among Us. Even now that they have married two of my great loves and made the Game of Thrones episodic, I just can't displace Wolf Among Us from that top spot it so rightly deserves. It is fantastic. Don't get me wrong I have loved the Walking Dead series and I am really enjoying the Game of Thrones one too, but Wolf is the one that I would recommend to anyone new to beauty of a Telltale episodic game.

There is no doubt that the artstyle of Telltale Games lends itself brilliantly to Borderlands. It seemed like a match made in heaven and one that I was eagerly anticipating. But it falls short in many ways. The thing that I, along with many others I expect, love the most about Borderlands is the anarchy. Borderlands is absolutely mental. There are no rules, you run around killing anything and everything and hoping to score some wicked loot. And that is where it's beauty lies - in the simplicity of it. The story is neither here nor there (for me anyway) and I play the game purely for the fun of it. The unparalleled joy of getting a new gun and unloading it into a midget psycho.

You play as this bad ass. And this hapless sap. 

The Telltale episodic misses out on this I feel. The story in it feels kinda lazy too, with you being able to adapt it via your character just telling the tale to the person who has captured you. There are some thrilling moments, but it all feels removed as you struggle to feel anything for the characters you are playing as. I can honestly say I didn't really care what happened to any of them, a real shame as I think it is empathy for a characters situation that drives the Telltale games.

There was a really cool little bit when I had completed the game and skipped the credits. In the same vain that they use in the game when you make a decision that can change the course of the narrative it came across the top that 'Telltale Games will remember that' which did make me giggle.

Overall this game just doesn't work for me. It feels pretty lazy and lacks the emotive writing of Telltale's other offerings. It may get better as more episodes release, but for now I'd say it's safe to skip it until it's in the sale. Grab it in the half price Telltale Collection if they run the offer again and you definitely won't feel robbed. The other games in the collection more than make up for this one.

5/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Game of Thrones Ep. 2 (Xbox One) - Review

If you've been reading my blog you will remember that I gave the first episode in the new Telltale Game of Thrones series a 10/10, so the second had a lot to live up to...

Well I'll cut to the chase and say that it did! In many ways it was better, mostly because you started to see the effects of your decisions in the first episode, many of the decisions made in episode one are quite far reaching, indeed, you didn't really see many consequences in the first episode.

In this episode we get to meet Jon Snow! Gared makes it to the wall and after making some friends/enemies we get to go to the top of the wall with the man himself. It is a great rendering of Jon Snow, just as dour as he is in the TV series and I was truly excited when in the trailer for this episode I first got a glimpse of him.

Jon Snow. He knows nothing...

We also got to see a bit more of Mira in King's Landing and see how the choices you made in the first episode effect her life there. Which I think up to now has been one of the most interesting parts of the game. I don't really like Mira though, but there's no mistaking the fact that she is playing in the big leagues with regards to who she can reach out to.

Lord Whitehill makes another appearance at House Forrester, to gloat and be generally horrible. There are many things going on in House Forrester which I won't ruin here, but suffice it to say that it is incredibly interesting.

We also get to play as Asher, the Forrester that was exiled to Essos. Although I don't know how for me really as I chose NOT to send Malcolm to Essos in search of him, maybe I found a glitch? Anyhow I'm not going to complain. Asher is a great character that I feel will really come into his own when or if he makes it back to Westeros.

Asher in Essos. Try saying it drunk.

Reviews for these games are fairly difficult to do, as I really don't want to spoil any of the big surprises for you guys. But, just like in the show, the twists and turns keep coming and it really keeps you on your toes. There is no slacking on this game, with every decision you make you may be endangering the lives of others, and lets be honest its Game of Thrones, you probably are. With each choice that comes I am constantly pressing the corresponding button at the last minute as I desperately struggle to decipher every possible way it could be construed. It's a real thinker and I absolutely love it for that. There have been many Game of Thrones games to date, but none has captured the true spirit of Westeros quite like this one has. If you haven't already got it DO IT. At the time of writing this the whole Telltale Collection is half price on the store, and in my opinion they are five games that you just can't do without!

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Unmechanical: Extended (Xbox One) - Review

Unmechanical: Extended released on 11th February in Europe and is priced at £7.99. Unmechanical was a game released in 2012 for Windows, and the devs have now seen fit to bring it to the console with a bit of an extension. It features quite possibly the cutest robot ever on its apparent quest to escape from....well somewhere.

This was one of the most intriguing things about Unmechanical: Extended for me, it has literally no dialogue. There is no over-arching plotline. Nothing to guide you on your way, and NO TUTORIAL! Many people have grown sick of the hand holding tutorials within games now, that stop you from getting into the action for what seems like a huge amount of time. Well have no fears with this game, as everything is left for you to figure out, and it's all the better for it.

Cutest robot ever?

As you make your way through the scenery, you come across little puzzles that will unblock that route and allow you to venture forth. These puzzles are simplistic but brilliant, much like the game. There is enough variety that you won't get bored, but at the same time the game never really throes you a huge curveball. With just a little thought these puzzles are quite easily overcome, and this isn't a bad thing - quite the opposite in fact - as it makes for a truly enjoyable experience instead of one marred with frustration at the sometimes silly solutions to the puzzles. we've all been there right?

No Unmechanical:Extended takes puzzle games back to their beautiful basics. The music is relaxing and so so fitting to the overall feel of the game. The lack of story only makes the game MORE interesting, as you attempt to fill in the gaps. Who is this robot? Where is he? Why does he need to escape? The graphics are gorgeous and the extremely simple controls are a pleasure to use. This game is proof that a simple little game can be excellent if done correctly.

Priced at £7.99 I'd say this is very competitively priced (although what happened to indies being <£5!?). Considering the last game I reviewed was also this much I have absolutely no qualms in stating that if you have that amount sitting about then THIS is the game you should get. It is a brilliant experience, and one that you won't regret. For the hardcore gamer it might feel a little slow, but for anyone else I'd say give it a go!

9/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Funk of Titans (Xbox One) - Review

Funk of Titans released this week on the Xbox One priced at £7.99/$9.99. Billed as a fast-pace side-scrolling platformer you play Perseus, a guy told by Zeus to go and slay the musical titans that are Pop, Rap and Rock so that Funk can prevail.

To do this you must master the art of 'Funk Fu' which means basically you must be able to time your button presses, on the Xbox One 'A' jumps and 'X' attacks. To get through each level you must basically jump and attack at the right time. And that's it.

Perseus does not stop moving so timing really is everything. You'll find various obstacles in your way, including random fires and spike pits, as well as the weedy little guards. Bounce on their heads a la Mario or cut them up with your weapon the choice is yours...but this is the only choice you have in this game really. And if you're looking for 100% completion you don't even have that. To get 100% on each level you must earn three medals; 'Intactus' (completing the level with your jacket still on), 'Vinylus' (collecting all of the vinyl) and 'Pegasus' (for getting the Pegasus, a wooden horse with a rocket attached). The vinyls will sometimes be resting on an unknowing guards head, therein forcing you to jump on it.

There are some customisation options, but except for some of the weapons (which you will need to unlock certain gates) they offer no difference in gameplay. I would have thought that having a helmet on would you give you one extra hit pint, but that isn't so. If you get hit once then your jacket falls off. Get hit again and you die and can retry from the very beginning of the level. There are no checkpoints, which usually I wouldn't miss given that the levels are so short, but they are so dull that having to go from the beginning again honestly feels torturous.

Getting the Pegasus from each level grants you a 'Flappy Bird'-esque level in which Perseus flies on his Pegasus and tries to collect coins and most of all, not crash. The whole game just feels like a fish-mash of non-original ideas. The 'Titan' levels are a dance off between Perseus and the Titan of that level. You watch them do a dance and then you press buttons to complete your dance. There is no rhythm in these button presses - they just pop up in the position they are in on the controller randomly. I mean you have to press them before they disappear but for a music game this should really have been a more timed event. Something scrolling along the bottom I feel would have been much better, where you have to hit the button at the right time, and most importantly in time with the music to progress.

Graphically the game is pretty nice and the music would have been great...if it didn't repeat quite so much. The controls, whilst nothing new, do work well and are responsive. The game has clearly been made well, it is just the idea of it that I can't get behind.

I feel awful slamming this game, I really do. I wanted to like it. I always want to support indie devs, but I can't recommend this game. It should have been a mobile game. But saying that, that market is so saturated with games like this that Funk of Titans maybe wouldn't have gotten the recognition it deserves on that format. It would have worked wonderfully there though the price point would have had to drastically change on mobile devices for it to ever get a look in. As it stands I think this game will flounder somewhat in the competitive console market, and whilst it's priced at £7.99 I believe it is just too high to just take a punt on.

4/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.