PS4 Game Reviews
Review Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 2: Brave New World (PS4)
What's past is prologue
Life Is Strange, with its unique brand of teen drama, was already a franchise with a very distinctive vibe – but developer Deck Nine has done a great job leaning into that with its prequel side-story Before the Storm. The game’s rip-roaring first episode saw rebellious protagonist Chloe Price playing a role-playing game...
Murder she wrote
Chaos;Child is the latest visual novel brought to us by developer 5pb, and the fourth main entry in the ‘Science Adventure’ series. Chaos;Child sits in that series with acclaimed titles like Steins;Gate and this game’s predecessor, Chaos;Head, but don’t worry too much about having experience with either. Ultimately,...
Be like everyone
Wrestling fans across the globe had high hopes for the WWE video game franchise when the license was acquired by 2K Games, believing that with a fresh and more reputable publisher at the helm they would finally get the game they had always dreamed of. Unfortunately, since the franchise has moved to the PlayStation 4 it has been a...
Review Rogue Trooper Redux (PS4)
Clone army
PS2 curio Rogue Trooper is an unlikely candidate for the remaster treatment. Taken from the pages of eclectic British comic 2000AD, Sniper Elite developer Rebellion had a decent stab at trying something new with the always swamped third-person shooter genre. Receiving positive reviews, it’s since faded into obscurity. Hopefully,...
Review Guardians of the Galaxy: Episode Four - Who Needs You (PS4)
Just the Drax, ma'am
Penultimate episodes are a tricky proposition. On the one hand, you've got to set up the story for the big finale in the next instalment, but on the other, you can't promise or give away too much or the coming climax might wind up feeling, well, anti-climactic. Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy - a series that has such little...
Review RAID: World War II (PS4)
Nein out of ten
Men-on-a-mission movies set during World War II – such as Guns of the Navarone or Where Eagles Dare – that see a mismatched group of people embarking on near suicidal missions have long been inspiration for video games. RAID: World War II – a co-op multiplayer title in the vein of the Payday series – hopes to apply this...
Review The Evil Within 2 (PS4)
Subdued spooks
There’s a certain genius to madness. That’s especially true for crafting superb survival horror that balances the irrational and bizarre with careful consideration. The Evil Within, which put players in a psychopath’s mind-made reality, was one such example. There was tension-inducing enemy encounters amid erratic pacing...
Yabba dabba don't
Caveman Warriors is a 2D platformer with up to four-player co-op. In it, you’ll guide the four playable characters – Jack, Liliana, Moe, and Brienne – as they journey to rescue their children from the clutches of a mysterious alien race. While the setup isn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off, the potential is...
Review The Invisible Hours (PS4)
Whodunnit?
If the world is a stage and we are all players, then that means we must all simultaneously be the protagonists of our own stories, right? Look beyond the crude clichés and there’s a point to that opening sentence: The Invisible Hours exposes what it would be like to act as a fly on the wall in a house where every inhabitant has a...
Me, myself, and I
Learning new abilities is something that players takes advantage of nowadays; progression as reward and reward through progression. It is a fundamental aspect of modern gaming, one that makes us feel safe and confident in our ability to learn new skills. But what if learning something new was a potentially dangerous and even...
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The feeling of satisfaction that you get when your beam rifle finally finds its mark and your opponent spirals into a ball of flame is the best part of Gundam Versus. After three minutes of desperately tense, twitchy movement and praying that your attacks connect, watching as the camera cuts away to an exploding mobile suit is the perfect...
Review Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle (PS4)
Touhou want to fight?
If you’ve ever wanted to make super cute anime girls beat the living daylights out of each other for fun but balked at the Dead or Alive series, then NIS America has just delivered what you’re looking for with Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle. This is a twist on the arcade fighting games that gives you guns as well as swords...
Dreddful?
JYDGE is a top-down, twin-stick shooter not too dissimilar to Hotline Miami. You take on the role of what can only be described as a knockoff Judge Dredd, who is tasked with dishing out justice with his gavel gun. The entire game is level based: each one set in a different location where the criminals have gathered hostages or stock piles...
Review Baja: Edge of Control HD (PS4)
Offroading like it's '08
Baja: Edge of Control was a title that released last generation back in 2008. Nine years later, publisher THQ Nordic and developer 2XL Games have decided to remaster this title and dub it “HD” (because, you know, last generation games weren’t HD already). That being said, lets see how this off-road racer fares for the...
Bang in form
Surprise surprise, FIFA 18 is another rock solid entry in EA's footie sim series. Why wouldn't it be? It feels like the developer pretty much nailed its formula years ago, and ever since, it's just tweaked and added things little by little with each annual instalment. This year's title is no different. It looks better, it plays better,...
Review Batman: The Enemy Within - Episode Two: The Pact (PS4)
Friends close, enemies closer
Oh, this is good. Telltale’s take on Batman has always traded on the duality of the Dark Night, but in this excellent instalment, all of its efforts come to fruition. Tasked with befriending Gotham’s most gruesome, Bruce Wayne’s morals are pushed to their limits, as he’s forced to ingratiate himself to the likes...
Let's go away
The real genius of NASCAR is its ability to transform a never-ending series of left-turns into bumper-to-bumper thrills and spills. Observe the overhead of any oval speedway and you’re unlikely to be impressed, but it’s when a pack of raucous race cars line up shoulder-to-shoulder, jostling for space and optimal positioning that it...
Say mine name
In SteamWorld Dig 2 you play as Dorothy, a steam powered mining robot. Your ally Rusty, who eagle-eyed readers will remember as the protagonist of the first game in the franchise, has gone missing. Your mission is to find him. This sends you deep into the mines once again, in a game that shares a lot of its progenitor’s DNA. ...
Rapid expansion
Sometimes a game just doesn’t land regardless of its quality. Expand, an indie title from Chris Johnson and Chris Larkin, fits the bill. It hit Steam back in 2015 with relatively little fanfare, and the same seems to be happening again. This lack of buzz around the game says nothing of its quality, however, as it's actually rather...
Review The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Video Game (PS4)
Brick breaker
The LEGO franchise has been a dominant presence in the video game realm for a while now, but only recently has it begun dipping its toes into movies. The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Video Game combines both worlds, simultaneously debuting its ninja franchise on the big screen as well as the PlayStation 4. With well over a dozen games based on...
Plague is the disease
Are you brave enough to walk the Plague Road – a virtual path that will lead you through a strange 2D steampunk-ish world filled with illness, enemies, and treasure? You play the role of a lone masked doctor who is on a mission to try and save a city which is being eaten away from the inside by an all-consuming plague. Some...
Review The Solus Project (PS4)
Ever so lonely
The Solus Project is a single-player survival exploration experience developed entirely in Unreal Engine 4. Earth has been destroyed and humans are now on the brink of extinction. You have been sent on a mission to find another planet that is inhabitable, but after years of exploration with no luck, you find yourself stranded and...
Review Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)
The cycle repeats
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen was one of the standout action role-playing games of the last generation, with an emphasis on 'action'. Indeed, Capcom's Western fantasy-infused tale offered up a breathless combat system -- a deep and very customisable combination of light attacks, heavy blows, and special abilities. It was the...
Spaced out
Morphite is an arcadey, first person space exploration game with procedurally generated planets, resource collecting, and upgradeable equipment. Sound familiar? Well, while it may sound a lot like No Man’s Sky, the similarities are really only skin deep. Play Morphite for a while, and you’ll find it’s trying to carve its own path...
Flip the light fantastic
So, has Zen Studios finally settled on a name, then? Pinball FX3 is the successor to Zen Pinball 2, a game which itself was named Pinball FX2 on other platforms. The good news is that despite the adjusted moniker, you can import practically all of your tables from the previous version into this all-new release – although...
Review Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
A diamond in the rough
Republished on Wednesday 27th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Hideo Kojima's critically acclaimed Metal Gear franchise is known for its showy, fantastical, and often down-right ridiculous mythos –...
Review Amnesia: Collection (PS4)
In the mouth of madness
Republished on Wednesday 27th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Usually when people strike up a conversation about the best horror games ever made, you're going to hear someone bring up...
Game of many colours
Republished on Wednesday 27th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Puzzle games often have a serious problem with striking an even balance between being challenging and fun. Too often...
Mist opportunity?
Final Fantasy IX is among of the best, if not the best entry in one of gaming's most illustrious franchises. It's a sweeping tale of adventure, friendship, war, loss, and oglops. It's a role-playing masterpiece produced by a studio that, back in the year 2000, was at the very top of its game. And now, the glorious PSone classic has...
Buy this game, puppy
Ruiner marks the first title from Polish developer Reikon Games – and the latest release under Devolver Digital’s publishing initiative. The game fits comfortably alongside the other types of games that the label likes to put its name on, and this is one outing that stands out among an already impressive portfolio. At...
