The Evil Within is a survival horror game, developed by Tango Gameworks and released in 2014.
Detective Sebastian Castellanos, along with his compatriots, Kidman and Joseph are investigating a murder at a mental hospital, and soon find themselves in a world of destruction. After seemingly see the world falling to bits, Sebastian awakes and finds himself strung upside down on a meat hook, while a human-like beast is butchering bodies. Sebastian attempts to break free and escape, before delving into a world full of even more disturbing situations. It's one of the best video game opening sequences I've played in quite some time.
Sebastian encounters Dr Jimenez, who his looking for his patient, Leslie. Separated from his partners, Sebastian learns more information about what is happening around him through Jimenez, learning more and more about a powerful being, Ruvik. Dressed in rags and the ability to kill you in a instant, your best option is to run when Ruvik pops up. There's plenty more to fear though, Laura, a spider-like woman whose constant shrieking is enough to freak you out for life, never mind her introduction that comes out of nowhere. Sebastian, his fellow detectives, Dr Jimenez and Leslie must fight for their lives to escape the madness they find themselves trapped in.
The creepy tone is carried throughout, the screen is shortened due to the black bars at the top and bottom of your screen, restricting your view. Cinematically it looked good, but for gameplay it was hindering. There is a constant Resident Evil 4 feel to it, like the whole game is a homage to the horror classic.
You travel to lots of creepy environments, they looked great, they're intense to navigate through. You want to explore, and you should, there's plenty of secrets and you need to scavenge for ammo anyway. The gameplay is fun, the shooting can be difficult, but the actions scenes are great to play. You can stealth by throwing bottles as distractions and get up close for sneak kills.
You have a huge arsenal at your disposal, but ammo is very scarce. You can also find melee weapons that are only usable once and you have a crossbow with different types of bolts; freeze bolts, explosive, fire and a few more. I took a while to get into Evil Within, once I realised I couldn't shoot everyone in the head and played correctly, it was fun. The Haunted, the standard enemy of the game, can survive head wounds. The most effective way to kill, is to shoot them in the knee and drop and match on them when they fall. Matches are more damaging than bullets.... Seriously!
The creatures in this game are fucked up. Probably nothing compared to Silent Hill, they're pretty messed up too, but still. But I love that. I love the uneasy feeling you get from Evil Within, it's not something you get from many games. I was always looking forward to seeing the next boss introduction. The boss fights were always intense and well done. The Keeper is another stand out boss, a brute with a sledgehammer and a locked safe for a head? Did I mention he can kill himself to teleport closer to you? It's freaky and even worse as he respawns in front of you from the ground.
Survival difficulty is the normal difficulty, but you could get your ass kicked. If you were caught with a hit, you'd feel it with your health bar. You can upgrade your abilities, weapons and stock. Upgrade your stock for matches... trust me! You can also unlock safes by finding keys hidden in statues, you can get some wonderful items when you unlock them; upgrade gel, ammo, bolts, it's addicting unlocking them. You have a sprint bar, that's miniscule unless you upgrade it. The problem is, when you sprint, you come to a complete stand still when the bar empties as you recover, but you stop running before the bar runs down and can fuck you. The graphics were quite a let down too, ultimately they were good on the monsters and locations you went to, but the people looked like they came straight from the 360. This was one of the first games I played on the One and it was a disappointment.
I'm not a huge fan of horror games, I'd liked to be, but I'm often too scared to get into them. Evil Within is certainly one of the creepiest horror games around, but it's very entertaining and a really good game. I'm definitely getting the sequel and look forward to the next barrage of crazy enemies.
7.9/10
Friday, 13 October 2017
Sunday, 8 October 2017
Life is Strange (Xbox One)
Life is Strange is an episodic adventure game, spanning five episodes. Developed by Dontnod Entertainment and all five episodes released in 2015. If you search LiS on the internet, you'll hear endless good things, I'm here to tell a different story.
The story focuses on Max Caulfield, a photography student at Blackwell Academy, in Arcadia Bay. While in the school's bathroom, a boy named Nathan enters, and seems aggravated, Max hiding behind one of the stalls out of sight. Another girl enters and has an argument with Nathan, it all goes badly and the girl is accidentally shot. Out of nowhere and unbeknownst to Max, she's able to (somehow) rewind time and save the girl, who turns out to be her childhood best friend, Chloe. They reunite and become friends again, Max quickly tells Chloe about her new found time powers. She is also experiencing visions of a storm hitting the town, looking to be the destruction of the town.
Characters are really the most important thing in a video game for me, well in story based games that is. After playing all five episodes, I'd say there were three characters I actually liked, none of them were the main two... Max was boring and plain. She was shy and desperately trying to be indie it hurt, then all of a sudden she grows some balls and thinks she can be a tough girl. It's poor development from my eyes. Chloe. OH. MY. GOD. I absolutely, fucking despise Chloe. That's not saying she's a bad character, she's just annoying as being asked "why?" all the time. She's a young adult, who acts like a spoilt five year old. Made a decision that doesn't benefit her? Acts like a bitch. Made a decision that benefits her? Acts like a bitch. Made a decision that helps other people? Acts like a fucking selfish bitch. You can not win. Bear in mind, this is a friend you haven't seen much of in years, and yet it's all your fault. She didn't try and make an effort over the years, it's just constant whining and you're given no reason to care for her, but the game forces you to be her friend.
The side characters are interesting and much easier to like. Even people you think you hate, you start to like later on. The story is good, it's engaging. My problem was, I was only engaged in episode one and five. The middle episodes were just filler to me, I just wanted to see how it all panned out. You'd think that rewinding power would be awesome, but it's a huge annoyance. There's a few times during the story were you having conversations that are about three parts long, you have to get all the segments right to carry on. You're given four choices for each, but if you pick the wrong one, you're in endless cycles of rewinding until you get it right. Even worse, I badly screwed up on a part, and what do you know? No more infinite rewinds. They're only there when you don't want them.
You're made to feel like your choices matter. There's a pretty drastic change, that's literally life changing. I was happy to proceed with the story, but Max wasn't, so she decided to undo everything I chose to do, and everything just went back to normal.... Are you kidding me? The game literally wastes your time and undoes your doing. Thanks, I really felt like I chose how the story played out. People can die in early episodes, who can actually make it to the end. That's cool, although I think it's literally one or two people.
The performances are really good, can't lie there. The music fits really well and the location is beautiful. I really wish I was given more freedom to just explore. You can roam fairly freely, but in a different type of game we could've explored more. I like the style of graphics, quite arty and comic book-like. The story even strongly ties in real life issues, and it can be pretty devastating how easily people's lives can be destroyed. Bullying, depression, drugs and even more heavy shit.
Later on in the episodes, there's a part where you hoping through older photographs of Max, so she can travel to that moment of the picture. That was easily the best part of the whole series. The end bad guy made no sense to me, I thought their motives were dumb and they tried so hard to be intense and scare you, but I just cringed. It's like the threw it out you to try and create a big twist, but it just made it even worse for me. You're also given a choice at the end, it's meant to be difficult and leave you pausing the game while you try and decide. Easiest choice I've ever made in a game, I didn't hesitate at all. Ultimately for me, this games tries a lot and fails most of the time for me.
This is not a bad game. contrary to everything I've said, it's really not. It's just not this masterpiece everyone is saying it is. Now we're getting a pointless prequel to cash in on its success. Great! A prequel full of characters I don't care about and I know how their story goes. Can't wait.
I think Dontnod Entertainment are going to be a big name developer in the near future. although I don't agree with it's acclaim that much, it's an amazing start for them. They also developed Remember Me, a game I can't wait to try and the upcoming Vampyr, which is one of the games I'm most looking forward to. They also have a second season of Life is Strange to come, but they aren't the developers for the prequel story.
I'll play Life is Strange's next season, hopefully it will be the masterpiece everyone said the original was.... but I doubt it!
6.5/10
The story focuses on Max Caulfield, a photography student at Blackwell Academy, in Arcadia Bay. While in the school's bathroom, a boy named Nathan enters, and seems aggravated, Max hiding behind one of the stalls out of sight. Another girl enters and has an argument with Nathan, it all goes badly and the girl is accidentally shot. Out of nowhere and unbeknownst to Max, she's able to (somehow) rewind time and save the girl, who turns out to be her childhood best friend, Chloe. They reunite and become friends again, Max quickly tells Chloe about her new found time powers. She is also experiencing visions of a storm hitting the town, looking to be the destruction of the town.
Characters are really the most important thing in a video game for me, well in story based games that is. After playing all five episodes, I'd say there were three characters I actually liked, none of them were the main two... Max was boring and plain. She was shy and desperately trying to be indie it hurt, then all of a sudden she grows some balls and thinks she can be a tough girl. It's poor development from my eyes. Chloe. OH. MY. GOD. I absolutely, fucking despise Chloe. That's not saying she's a bad character, she's just annoying as being asked "why?" all the time. She's a young adult, who acts like a spoilt five year old. Made a decision that doesn't benefit her? Acts like a bitch. Made a decision that benefits her? Acts like a bitch. Made a decision that helps other people? Acts like a fucking selfish bitch. You can not win. Bear in mind, this is a friend you haven't seen much of in years, and yet it's all your fault. She didn't try and make an effort over the years, it's just constant whining and you're given no reason to care for her, but the game forces you to be her friend.
The side characters are interesting and much easier to like. Even people you think you hate, you start to like later on. The story is good, it's engaging. My problem was, I was only engaged in episode one and five. The middle episodes were just filler to me, I just wanted to see how it all panned out. You'd think that rewinding power would be awesome, but it's a huge annoyance. There's a few times during the story were you having conversations that are about three parts long, you have to get all the segments right to carry on. You're given four choices for each, but if you pick the wrong one, you're in endless cycles of rewinding until you get it right. Even worse, I badly screwed up on a part, and what do you know? No more infinite rewinds. They're only there when you don't want them.
You're made to feel like your choices matter. There's a pretty drastic change, that's literally life changing. I was happy to proceed with the story, but Max wasn't, so she decided to undo everything I chose to do, and everything just went back to normal.... Are you kidding me? The game literally wastes your time and undoes your doing. Thanks, I really felt like I chose how the story played out. People can die in early episodes, who can actually make it to the end. That's cool, although I think it's literally one or two people.
The performances are really good, can't lie there. The music fits really well and the location is beautiful. I really wish I was given more freedom to just explore. You can roam fairly freely, but in a different type of game we could've explored more. I like the style of graphics, quite arty and comic book-like. The story even strongly ties in real life issues, and it can be pretty devastating how easily people's lives can be destroyed. Bullying, depression, drugs and even more heavy shit.
Later on in the episodes, there's a part where you hoping through older photographs of Max, so she can travel to that moment of the picture. That was easily the best part of the whole series. The end bad guy made no sense to me, I thought their motives were dumb and they tried so hard to be intense and scare you, but I just cringed. It's like the threw it out you to try and create a big twist, but it just made it even worse for me. You're also given a choice at the end, it's meant to be difficult and leave you pausing the game while you try and decide. Easiest choice I've ever made in a game, I didn't hesitate at all. Ultimately for me, this games tries a lot and fails most of the time for me.
This is not a bad game. contrary to everything I've said, it's really not. It's just not this masterpiece everyone is saying it is. Now we're getting a pointless prequel to cash in on its success. Great! A prequel full of characters I don't care about and I know how their story goes. Can't wait.
I think Dontnod Entertainment are going to be a big name developer in the near future. although I don't agree with it's acclaim that much, it's an amazing start for them. They also developed Remember Me, a game I can't wait to try and the upcoming Vampyr, which is one of the games I'm most looking forward to. They also have a second season of Life is Strange to come, but they aren't the developers for the prequel story.
I'll play Life is Strange's next season, hopefully it will be the masterpiece everyone said the original was.... but I doubt it!
6.5/10
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
The Club (Xbox 360)
The Club is a third person shooter, survival game. The Club itself, is ran by The Secretary, wealthy people place bets on the competitors on whether they will survive their visit. The 'gladiators' aren't volunteering to be combatants at The Club, they're fighting for their survival.
There are eight playable characters, two are unlocked through gameplay. Each character had their own back story and ending cinematic. My favourite was Finn, a gambling addict who clearly has a lot of debts to pay, as he's getting beating up in his opening cinematic. Each character has their own stats too, there health, speed etc. so you're best playing around and see who fits you best.
There are eight tournaments in total and each takes you across the world. Each level is really well designed, if I wasn't always timed in the events, I'd have explored and taken the chance to look around. You're taken to some great places to kill some dudes, prisons, abandoned ocean liners, bunkers, manors amongst others.
There are six modes throughout the game. Most are timed, but one or two are more relaxed. There's a survival mode, get to the exit as quick as possible, running laps of the map and killing for extra time and more. You can also pick which map and mode you'd like to play outside of the tournaments. The scoring system is fun, and it's really addictive trying to climb up the leaderboards. Unfortunately the multiplayer is dead, not surprising since the game is nine years old. I would've loved to have had some fun on the multiplayer, I think it could've been addicting.
The gameplay is really good, the running and gunning is very fun. People actually died when you shot them, none of this bullet sponging bullshit, if you shot a guy in the head, don't worry about him anymore. If you got pretty good at the shooting, you could drop everyone with one headshot. You have melee and grenades too, but I didn't use them much. There are hidden skulls that add to your score if you shoot them, but when you get to the finish line, you have to crash through the barricades to end the level.
The premise is simple, the gameplay is excellent and the characters are cool. When I looked up this game, I was surprised to see it had lots of 7/8s, but when I thought about it, it kinda made sense. All that was missing for me was the fun looking multiplayer, obviously it didn't get to gain any points from me for that. It's pretty addicting and plays great, but arcade style games have their limits for me and I can't play them forever, I'm a story guy, and there isn't much of one here.
I enjoyed my time with The Club, but I don't think I'll be renewing my membership.
6.9/10
There are eight playable characters, two are unlocked through gameplay. Each character had their own back story and ending cinematic. My favourite was Finn, a gambling addict who clearly has a lot of debts to pay, as he's getting beating up in his opening cinematic. Each character has their own stats too, there health, speed etc. so you're best playing around and see who fits you best.
There are eight tournaments in total and each takes you across the world. Each level is really well designed, if I wasn't always timed in the events, I'd have explored and taken the chance to look around. You're taken to some great places to kill some dudes, prisons, abandoned ocean liners, bunkers, manors amongst others.
There are six modes throughout the game. Most are timed, but one or two are more relaxed. There's a survival mode, get to the exit as quick as possible, running laps of the map and killing for extra time and more. You can also pick which map and mode you'd like to play outside of the tournaments. The scoring system is fun, and it's really addictive trying to climb up the leaderboards. Unfortunately the multiplayer is dead, not surprising since the game is nine years old. I would've loved to have had some fun on the multiplayer, I think it could've been addicting.
The gameplay is really good, the running and gunning is very fun. People actually died when you shot them, none of this bullet sponging bullshit, if you shot a guy in the head, don't worry about him anymore. If you got pretty good at the shooting, you could drop everyone with one headshot. You have melee and grenades too, but I didn't use them much. There are hidden skulls that add to your score if you shoot them, but when you get to the finish line, you have to crash through the barricades to end the level.
The premise is simple, the gameplay is excellent and the characters are cool. When I looked up this game, I was surprised to see it had lots of 7/8s, but when I thought about it, it kinda made sense. All that was missing for me was the fun looking multiplayer, obviously it didn't get to gain any points from me for that. It's pretty addicting and plays great, but arcade style games have their limits for me and I can't play them forever, I'm a story guy, and there isn't much of one here.
I enjoyed my time with The Club, but I don't think I'll be renewing my membership.
6.9/10
Saturday, 30 September 2017
Family Guy Back to the Multiverse (Xbox 360)
Family Guy Back to the Multiverse released in 2012 and was developed by Heavy Iron Studios, who are experts in developing games based on cartoon shows and animated movies.
I'm going to say straight away, you will only like this game if you're a fan of the show. I am a fan of the show, but much less than I used to be. I haven't seen a new episode since about 2013. The game stars Brian and Stewie and is heavily based on the episode "Road to the Multiverse". Brian and Stewie bounce around alternate universes, as they chase down Stewie's rival, Bertram.
The levels are pretty fun to navigate, each one is different and has tonnes of nods to the show. Most levels have a boss battle and relevant enemies to each universe. Crippletron makes a return as a boss fight, there's a level heavily based off the Alien franchise, and probably my favourite level was a fight between Peter and the giant chicken, it was fun to control one of their fights after seeing so many in the show.
Ultimately, it gets boring quite fast. The best part is seeing where each level takes you, but soon has you wanting to move to the next. The gameplay sucks in all honesty and the shooting is bland. There's melee and throwable items, one being a giant chicken that fights enemies for you, but he doesn't really do much. Only the level design was the interesting part of the game. The boring gameplay wasn't enough to keep it entertaining.
There's local multiplayer which is quite fun to play with a friend, there's a bunch of characters from the show to play as, and lots of outfits to buy for each. There are some fun game modes to play too, like 'Capture the Greased up Deaf Guy', which was practically capture the moving flag. One problem was you could spawn in the same place over and over, leaving you to be spawn killed.
The whole game is playable in coop, which is a much better way to play, it's a whole lot less boring with a friend along, and kinda fun. There's a great selection of weapons for both Brian and Stewie, so you'll definitely find one that's suitable for you. There are also some costumes for each you can purchase and wear throughout the story. There are also optional objectives that definitely add to the game and a challenge mode that offers you the chance to earn money.
The game looks ugly in 3D. Cartoon shows don't really look great when video games turn them into 3D, South Park: The Stick of Truth worked perfectly because it was just like the show. When your character is low on health, they look really beaten up, that was a good aesthetic look. To add to the boring game, the constant and irrelevant quotes from the show will drive you insane. Brian or Stewie will constantly say quotes taken from the show and say them over again, most of the time they don't even fit the situation.
Like I said, your best bet of enjoying this game is liking the show. I think if you were to pick a Family Guy game to play, you're better off with Family Guy Video Game released in 2006, I had way more fun on that one, bear in mind I was massively into the show back then, but it really was more fun.
6.3/10
I'm going to say straight away, you will only like this game if you're a fan of the show. I am a fan of the show, but much less than I used to be. I haven't seen a new episode since about 2013. The game stars Brian and Stewie and is heavily based on the episode "Road to the Multiverse". Brian and Stewie bounce around alternate universes, as they chase down Stewie's rival, Bertram.
The levels are pretty fun to navigate, each one is different and has tonnes of nods to the show. Most levels have a boss battle and relevant enemies to each universe. Crippletron makes a return as a boss fight, there's a level heavily based off the Alien franchise, and probably my favourite level was a fight between Peter and the giant chicken, it was fun to control one of their fights after seeing so many in the show.
Ultimately, it gets boring quite fast. The best part is seeing where each level takes you, but soon has you wanting to move to the next. The gameplay sucks in all honesty and the shooting is bland. There's melee and throwable items, one being a giant chicken that fights enemies for you, but he doesn't really do much. Only the level design was the interesting part of the game. The boring gameplay wasn't enough to keep it entertaining.
There's local multiplayer which is quite fun to play with a friend, there's a bunch of characters from the show to play as, and lots of outfits to buy for each. There are some fun game modes to play too, like 'Capture the Greased up Deaf Guy', which was practically capture the moving flag. One problem was you could spawn in the same place over and over, leaving you to be spawn killed.
The whole game is playable in coop, which is a much better way to play, it's a whole lot less boring with a friend along, and kinda fun. There's a great selection of weapons for both Brian and Stewie, so you'll definitely find one that's suitable for you. There are also some costumes for each you can purchase and wear throughout the story. There are also optional objectives that definitely add to the game and a challenge mode that offers you the chance to earn money.
The game looks ugly in 3D. Cartoon shows don't really look great when video games turn them into 3D, South Park: The Stick of Truth worked perfectly because it was just like the show. When your character is low on health, they look really beaten up, that was a good aesthetic look. To add to the boring game, the constant and irrelevant quotes from the show will drive you insane. Brian or Stewie will constantly say quotes taken from the show and say them over again, most of the time they don't even fit the situation.
Like I said, your best bet of enjoying this game is liking the show. I think if you were to pick a Family Guy game to play, you're better off with Family Guy Video Game released in 2006, I had way more fun on that one, bear in mind I was massively into the show back then, but it really was more fun.
6.3/10
Sunday, 24 September 2017
The Escapists DLC Bundle (Xbox One)
The Escapists was developed by Team17, the creators of the Worms series. I had a lot of fun with the base game, and you can find my full review prior to this one.
A bunch of DLC prisons were released and here you find a review for three different add ons.
The Escape Team
This was easily my worst prison. It's effectively The A Team spoof. There are only four prisoners (The A Team gang). The prison is sort of an army base, there are a bunch of guards and the prison is far too big, seeing as there's only four prisoners. It was a nightmare to navigate through.
As the prisoners are basically The A Team, you don't really get into any scraps with the other inmates, because they're friends. There's only really one way to break out, and that's by a tank. You spend most of your time trying to rebuild the tank, and then you and your buddies all jump in and escape.
I got very bored because it took an overly long amount of time to escape. I hated the size of the prison, I kept making wrong turns and getting lost. Easily my least favourite.
2.9/5
Duct Tapes are Forever
DTAF was definitely one of the harder prisons. As you may be able to tell by the title, it's a James Bond spoof. All the prisoners are agents and they're appropriately titled with puns of real Bond actors. The prison itself, is an evil villain's lair. The security is pretty tight too, cameras in every prisoners room, metal detectors and colour key doors.
I enjoyed this prison quite a lot, it was a tough one, a humorous take on James Bond and an enjoyable break out. Again, there is only one way out, and that's to use the broken down rocket. You spend your time getting the rocket to work again, before finally launching to freedom.
Everything was enjoyable in this prison. I took a long time to escape and that was due to the tight security. Definitely an upgrade on the DLC.
3.4/5
Santa's Workshop
A prison full of Elves and their attempt to break out of Santa's Workshop, genius!
Elves are sick of cleaning up reindeer muck and tired of toy making. Definitely one of my favourite prisons. It was a great environment too, snow, presents, Christmas trees. It was hard to believe it was a prison!
This was a pretty tough breakout, again only one way and that was by decorating the Christmas tree with lights and presents, and then fly to freedom.
Even in the base game I'd probably say this was my favourite prison. I took a very long time to escape as it was easily to mess up, but I persevered and can definitely say it's my favourite!
4.1/5
A bunch of DLC prisons were released and here you find a review for three different add ons.
The Escape Team
This was easily my worst prison. It's effectively The A Team spoof. There are only four prisoners (The A Team gang). The prison is sort of an army base, there are a bunch of guards and the prison is far too big, seeing as there's only four prisoners. It was a nightmare to navigate through.
As the prisoners are basically The A Team, you don't really get into any scraps with the other inmates, because they're friends. There's only really one way to break out, and that's by a tank. You spend most of your time trying to rebuild the tank, and then you and your buddies all jump in and escape.
I got very bored because it took an overly long amount of time to escape. I hated the size of the prison, I kept making wrong turns and getting lost. Easily my least favourite.
2.9/5
Duct Tapes are Forever
DTAF was definitely one of the harder prisons. As you may be able to tell by the title, it's a James Bond spoof. All the prisoners are agents and they're appropriately titled with puns of real Bond actors. The prison itself, is an evil villain's lair. The security is pretty tight too, cameras in every prisoners room, metal detectors and colour key doors.
I enjoyed this prison quite a lot, it was a tough one, a humorous take on James Bond and an enjoyable break out. Again, there is only one way out, and that's to use the broken down rocket. You spend your time getting the rocket to work again, before finally launching to freedom.
Everything was enjoyable in this prison. I took a long time to escape and that was due to the tight security. Definitely an upgrade on the DLC.
3.4/5
Santa's Workshop
A prison full of Elves and their attempt to break out of Santa's Workshop, genius!
Elves are sick of cleaning up reindeer muck and tired of toy making. Definitely one of my favourite prisons. It was a great environment too, snow, presents, Christmas trees. It was hard to believe it was a prison!
This was a pretty tough breakout, again only one way and that was by decorating the Christmas tree with lights and presents, and then fly to freedom.
Even in the base game I'd probably say this was my favourite prison. I took a very long time to escape as it was easily to mess up, but I persevered and can definitely say it's my favourite!
4.1/5
Sunday, 17 September 2017
The Escapists (Xbox One)
The Escapists released in 2015 and is a pixelated, prison break-out, strategy game. Can you break out of all the increasingly difficult prisons?
I'll be the first to say it, I'm sick of current game developers releasing games with 8 bit graphics. I get it's where games started and it's nostalgic, but what's the point of having amazing capabilities if they're just gonna stay in the 80s? That being said, it completely works for The Escapists. Considering its whole purpose is to break out of prisons, it has such a lighthearted tone. It's so bright and colourful, it has fantastic music that you'll have a joy listening to and it's really fun.
It can be quite overwhelming at first, there's so many possibilities to break out of each prison and your hand is never held. You're able to craft equipment to help you break out, but you have to experiment to find out how to make specific items. You can create tools to help you break out, shovels, pickaxes and weapons to fight off guards and inmates.
You can become friends with inmates and get guards on your good side. It's always good to keep everyone friendly so they don't constantly try to fight you, it can be annoying. You can do favours for the inmates and receive money and friendship. Some inmates are also merchants and sell you useful items, you can also loot sells to get them for free.
While you're planning your escape, you have a schedule you have to keep up with so the guards don't come looking for you. This includes roll calls, dinner times, exercise periods and shower time. You can upgrade your intelligence, strength and speed stats to make you better in fights, move faster and make more rare items. Every prison also has jobs for you to do, there are different jobs in different prisons too. You can do laundry, make clothes, deliver mail amongst others.
There are six total prisons to break out of, each prison has a unique layout and its own schedule so you never feel like you're doing the same thing over and over (besides when you're getting your stats up). Each prison also has obstacles you need to deal with, some have cameras in inmates' cells so you can't just get all your gear from looting them, some have Metal detectors so you can't always carry contraband. You can never get used to something you're comfortable with, because it may be difficult to reciprocate in the next prison. So your play style changes each prison.
If you start a fight with a guard and lose, or steal something from a guard and they wake up, you're sent to solitary, which skips three days. You can steal keys from guards, and make a copy of their key. You must give the key back to the incapacitated guard before the regain consciousness, or it's straight to solitary! You're able to customise your prisoner and change your name, same goes for other prisoners. A few times, some prisoners had the same name, which was annoying when you had a favour to do with a certain inmate.
As all the prisons are different, your escapes are different. Thankfully there are many ways out, I had a number of different escapes, but some prisons have only one way out. I've dig tunnels, smashed through walls and even ran through the front door. There's many ways to get freedom.
The Escapists is an incredibly fun game, it has a tonne of replayability and is an fantastic experience. The sequel has recently released and I'll soon be getting my orange jumpsuit back on!
7/10
I'll be the first to say it, I'm sick of current game developers releasing games with 8 bit graphics. I get it's where games started and it's nostalgic, but what's the point of having amazing capabilities if they're just gonna stay in the 80s? That being said, it completely works for The Escapists. Considering its whole purpose is to break out of prisons, it has such a lighthearted tone. It's so bright and colourful, it has fantastic music that you'll have a joy listening to and it's really fun.
It can be quite overwhelming at first, there's so many possibilities to break out of each prison and your hand is never held. You're able to craft equipment to help you break out, but you have to experiment to find out how to make specific items. You can create tools to help you break out, shovels, pickaxes and weapons to fight off guards and inmates.
You can become friends with inmates and get guards on your good side. It's always good to keep everyone friendly so they don't constantly try to fight you, it can be annoying. You can do favours for the inmates and receive money and friendship. Some inmates are also merchants and sell you useful items, you can also loot sells to get them for free.
While you're planning your escape, you have a schedule you have to keep up with so the guards don't come looking for you. This includes roll calls, dinner times, exercise periods and shower time. You can upgrade your intelligence, strength and speed stats to make you better in fights, move faster and make more rare items. Every prison also has jobs for you to do, there are different jobs in different prisons too. You can do laundry, make clothes, deliver mail amongst others.
There are six total prisons to break out of, each prison has a unique layout and its own schedule so you never feel like you're doing the same thing over and over (besides when you're getting your stats up). Each prison also has obstacles you need to deal with, some have cameras in inmates' cells so you can't just get all your gear from looting them, some have Metal detectors so you can't always carry contraband. You can never get used to something you're comfortable with, because it may be difficult to reciprocate in the next prison. So your play style changes each prison.
If you start a fight with a guard and lose, or steal something from a guard and they wake up, you're sent to solitary, which skips three days. You can steal keys from guards, and make a copy of their key. You must give the key back to the incapacitated guard before the regain consciousness, or it's straight to solitary! You're able to customise your prisoner and change your name, same goes for other prisoners. A few times, some prisoners had the same name, which was annoying when you had a favour to do with a certain inmate.
As all the prisons are different, your escapes are different. Thankfully there are many ways out, I had a number of different escapes, but some prisons have only one way out. I've dig tunnels, smashed through walls and even ran through the front door. There's many ways to get freedom.
The Escapists is an incredibly fun game, it has a tonne of replayability and is an fantastic experience. The sequel has recently released and I'll soon be getting my orange jumpsuit back on!
7/10
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Murdered Soul Suspect (Xbox One)
Murdered Soul Suspect released in 2014 and was the very first game I ever played on the Xbox One. You play as ghost detective, Ronan O'connor. He's on the tail of the infamous 'Bell Killer', only to be killed by him.
Now a ghost, detective Ronan must find out who killed him and get justice for himself and all the other victims of the Bell Killer. Seeing as you're a ghost, you're pretty limited as to what you can do now. But, you're able to do things you can in other games. You can walk through walls. What other game can you do that where it's not a glitch? You can posses people and cats, they help you navigate around a tight area, teleport and his own version of detective vision.
The story is very short, but there are a bunch of side investigations to add to the game. You can help fellow ghosts find out how they died, giving them peace and be able to pass on. The short story is a very interesting one, investigating your own death, with an excellent twist I never expected. The characters beside Ronan aren't really that interesting. Another huge problem is the lack of characters, for a game that has you trying to guess who the real killer is, you're options are very limited.
There are a tonne of easy collectables to find and they give you more information about the town of Salem and the Bell Killer. They're so easy to find, you can see most from afar, you'll find yourself leaving the story because there's so many collectables in sight. There aren't too many areas you're taken to, but they are well designed and interesting to explore. You can travel around the town of Salem, you're able to go to a church, a police department, a graveyard, a mental asylum, an apartment block and your own murder scene. Each place has their own side story to complete too.
As you're a ghost, there's not much harm that can come to you. However, there are demons that pop up from time to time. They can kill you, as well as demon pits. They're pretty easy to avoid, if you do get scene you're able to teleport into hiding spots, and switch between them as the demon looks for you. You can also distract the demons by using crows, their caws get the attention of the demons.
There's plenty of investigations for you to work out by collecting clues. You don't have to collect all clues, but you do need to find the ones that complete the investigation. They were too simple, once you found all clues you had to pick the correct ones to complete it. The problem was, you were fooled into thinking you couldn't make three mistakes or you'd fail. Turns out, once you get three wrong, you're just taken off that screen, you're able to go back to it and just keep picking the clues until you get it right.
This game was panned, I understand based on what many reviews said, but they clearly expected the game to be different to what it was. You're ultimately a ghost, ghosts can't be shot or detected to fail missions, so to say the game was too easy is silly, the only easy thing was not being able to fail investigations. The story was short, but it was good, it was interesting and had my attention the whole time, and the twist was so unexpected. The real problem with the story was the bland characters and lack of them to delegate who was the killer.
It's not a bad game. It's not a great game. It's a game you should play, it's unique, I can't think of another game like it. What else game has you play as a ghost finding out his own killer. Play this game, it's cheap!
7.2/10
Now a ghost, detective Ronan must find out who killed him and get justice for himself and all the other victims of the Bell Killer. Seeing as you're a ghost, you're pretty limited as to what you can do now. But, you're able to do things you can in other games. You can walk through walls. What other game can you do that where it's not a glitch? You can posses people and cats, they help you navigate around a tight area, teleport and his own version of detective vision.
The story is very short, but there are a bunch of side investigations to add to the game. You can help fellow ghosts find out how they died, giving them peace and be able to pass on. The short story is a very interesting one, investigating your own death, with an excellent twist I never expected. The characters beside Ronan aren't really that interesting. Another huge problem is the lack of characters, for a game that has you trying to guess who the real killer is, you're options are very limited.
There are a tonne of easy collectables to find and they give you more information about the town of Salem and the Bell Killer. They're so easy to find, you can see most from afar, you'll find yourself leaving the story because there's so many collectables in sight. There aren't too many areas you're taken to, but they are well designed and interesting to explore. You can travel around the town of Salem, you're able to go to a church, a police department, a graveyard, a mental asylum, an apartment block and your own murder scene. Each place has their own side story to complete too.
As you're a ghost, there's not much harm that can come to you. However, there are demons that pop up from time to time. They can kill you, as well as demon pits. They're pretty easy to avoid, if you do get scene you're able to teleport into hiding spots, and switch between them as the demon looks for you. You can also distract the demons by using crows, their caws get the attention of the demons.
There's plenty of investigations for you to work out by collecting clues. You don't have to collect all clues, but you do need to find the ones that complete the investigation. They were too simple, once you found all clues you had to pick the correct ones to complete it. The problem was, you were fooled into thinking you couldn't make three mistakes or you'd fail. Turns out, once you get three wrong, you're just taken off that screen, you're able to go back to it and just keep picking the clues until you get it right.
This game was panned, I understand based on what many reviews said, but they clearly expected the game to be different to what it was. You're ultimately a ghost, ghosts can't be shot or detected to fail missions, so to say the game was too easy is silly, the only easy thing was not being able to fail investigations. The story was short, but it was good, it was interesting and had my attention the whole time, and the twist was so unexpected. The real problem with the story was the bland characters and lack of them to delegate who was the killer.
It's not a bad game. It's not a great game. It's a game you should play, it's unique, I can't think of another game like it. What else game has you play as a ghost finding out his own killer. Play this game, it's cheap!
7.2/10
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