Mick Fraser's Reviews
It feels incredible to play and looks like it’ll be a bigger, deeper, more personal adventure, and I can’t wait to see how deep Melinoe’s quest takes her.
As with any survival-crafting-farming game in early access, Lightyear Frontier will only grown and evolve – but unlike many of its contemporaries, it already feels like a complete experience. How long it can sustain my interest with so few possibilities of sudden death or unannounced explosions of violent fury when the wildlife is careless enough to wander through my domain remains to be seen, but if you want a relaxing, good-looking, steady little farming sim with a touch of sci-fi and lots of scope to build and grow, Lightyear Frontier’s early access offering is worth checking out.
I don’t mean to be down on a smaller dev who has made a competent enough indie shooter, but I feel this genre is at a point where if a new entry isn’t doing something unique, then it needs to stand out some other way, and Hyperviolent just doesn’t. If you’re after a few hours spent mashing demon brains and roaming around looking for keys and matching doors, then Hyperviolent has you covered. If you’re after something fresh and new, maybe not so much.
If Stitch Heads continue along this path with Superfuse through early access, they will almost certainly have a winner on their hands come the full launch. They understand the genre and know exactly what fans want from it – right now it just needs balancing and expanding. The aesthetic is cool and the universe is interesting, and the Fuse system is just fantastic. The cathartic thrill of looting and levelling is hamstrung a little by the sense of repetition, but it’s early days yet, and Superfuse has the potential to be a genuine hit.
V Rising could be the next big survival game. Whether you want to play alone, with, or against other players, this has you covered. Once you get the hang of the combat you’ll begin to feel more and more powerful, crafting a towering castle that will terrify any delivery driver to their very core. I’m confident this will do well, and Early Access will continue to add new touches, tweaks and content between now and the eventual full release. If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own castle, only descending into the neighbouring villages to rip people open and finish them in one swallow like a Froob, V Rising may be the game you’ve been waiting for.
Having hit 2 million downloads on Steam in early access, Valheim is almost certainly going to stick around and get bigger and better. If Iron Gate AB stick to their current ethos of delivering faster-paced survival with the true freedom of opt-in PvP and community spirit, this could one day be the biggest survival game available. And considering the size of some of the current dominators, that’s no mean feat.
Had I played Persona 4 back when it was first released I doubt I’d have gotten into it, and it took me a while this time (it’s a good three hours or so before it really begins), but it wasn’t until I’d started to see all of the various elements and how they gel together that I started to understand why it’s such a beloved series. Am I a convert? Not yet, and I may never be, fully. But I’m glad I finally had a chance to see what everyone else has been telling me for years.
A poor attempt at a Gears of War clone that gets almost nothing right.
Flashback 2 is a mind-boggling mess of a game with few redeeming features, and a sequel we just didn't need.
That Babylon's Fall comes from Platinum Games is perhaps the biggest surprise here. A banal, uninspired hack 'n' slasher with no imagination or personality.
A poor offering from Red Dev leaves us with a game almost impossible to recommend
An uninspired, unoriginal Left4Dead clone that suffers from wishy-washy shooting and a lack of polish
A tedious slog that sullies the legacy of its vaunted predecessors.
A bog-standard dungeon crawler with added boobies, Party Favors offers forgettable titillation but almost no actual substance.
Devil's Third is an ugly, unoriginal, archaic adventure that seems determined to sabotage everything good in it.
CrossfireX has some interesting ideas in Remedy's dual campaigns, but everything else feels dated and generic.
The Uncertain: Light at the End isn't a bad game, but so much of it feels uninspired and done before that it fails to thrill or excite.
Table Manners is disappointing and frustrating at the same time, and feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity to make something fun and different and entertaining
The Dwarves is hard to recommend to any but the most diehard RPG fan, due to poor combat and terrible performance.
An ambitious game that just doesn't feel good enough even for a low budget title.