The Silver Case Review
Suda 51's very first game is back with HD graphics! Find out if The Silver Case remastered is worth your time in this review!
Release Date: April 11th, 2017
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Platforms: PS4 and PC
Price: (PC) $19.99 / (PS4) $29.99
Visual novels are just gaining steam here in North America, but they've been a staple in Japanese gaming. The Silver Case, which was originally developed by Grasshopper Manufacture in 1999 for the PlayStation, adds a little extra flair to the genre by including first-person point-and-click adventure style gameplay.
The game takes place over the course of five different cases all which are somehow related to the legendary serial killer, Kamui Uehara. The game is divided into two different scenarios: Transmitter and Placebo. Transmitter follows a rookie cop who joins the 24 Districts Police Department while Placebo follows reporters who are piecing together details to write about the Transmitter events. At first, I thought that the Placebo portion was just a small little side thing, but it actually helps expand on the events of the main story and definitely deserves to be played.
One of the interesting things about The Silver Case is the fact that it's an HD remaster of a PS1 game. When playing, it almost feels like you're playing a new game that's trying to be retro. With PS2 or PS3 remasters they can easily be modified to look like a modern game, but PS1 games were all blocky and weird looking. With that being said, this adds to the charm of The Silver Case and makes for a unique experience.
The controls in The Silver Case definitely took some getting used to. You have to press triangle to bring up a menu and select an action. This is something that you have to do whenever you want to move, interact with something in your inventory, or look at something. This is one of the drawbacks that could potentially happen when you remaster an old game.
While the majority of the game does a good job moving you along, there are a few parts that define the word tedious. There is a part particularly towards the end, where you have to thoroughly investigate 10 towers. All the towers have the same layout, but it's very easy to miss something. Furthermore, every time you enter a tower you have to pull up your menu, select move and then move forward. Ideally "move" would just always be the default setting, but that is not the case.
Another thing that might turn people off is that The Silver Case is pretty vulgar. We keep The Gamers Lounge family friendly so I won't write any of the words here, but it will be interesting to see how people feel about the language when they play it. There are even a few sexist parts, which I personally feel is actually about the characters and their behavior, than a reflection on the developers. The main reason I am bringing all of this up is because it shows how different games were in 1999 and even how different games are Japan. This is refreshing though, because it's nice to know that the developers kept the game in its original form.
Overall Grasshopper Manufacture's remastered version of their first game will take you about 15 hours to complete. For anyone who is a fan of Suda 51 and company, or if you're looking for a game that gives a unique experience, The Silver Case is definitely worth a playthrough.
Pros:
- Interesting Story
- Unique experience
- Rich characters
Cons:
- Can be tedious
- Controls are outdated
The Silver Case was reviewed on the PlayStation 4. Thank you to NIS for providing us with the code.
A Rose in the Twilight Review
A Rose in the Twilight follows a young girl and her monster friend through a mysterious castle. Find out if this game should be on your radar or if it's a thorn in your side in this review of A Rose in the Twilight!
What seems like an innocent game about a little girl and her monster companion is actually a deceptively twisted adventure filled gruesome blood offerings. As Rose, you find yourself waking up with a cursed thorn sticking out of your back. Using your abilities control blood and time you must figure out how to escape an ancient castle.
A Rose in the Twilight puzzles are broken up by different rooms in the castle. For the most part, each room has obstacles that require you to manipulate different objects that are either obstructing your way or will help you advance. For example, there will be a platform that you repeatedly have to freeze by absorbing the blood on it. Once that object stops in the correct position, you can jump on it and proceed.
You also enlist the help of a giant monster who is also looking to escape the castle. This monster will help you carry heavy objects, get through thorny areas that would kill Rose, defeat enemies, and throw Rose to areas that she wouldn't be able to access on her own. Rose in the Twilight does a great job balancing gameplay between the giant and Rose. There's never a time where you feel that the either character becomes a burden.
The overall pace of the game is pretty slow. Rose doesn't walk very fast, but once you have the giant helping you, you can use him to carry her around. Before I knew that the giant was in the game and I was only playing as Rose, I felt that the speed of the game was going to be something that I didn't enjoy. Luckily, this feeling subsided after about 30-45 minutes and it never really crossed my mind again. Rose in the Twilight is also very somber. There's no dialog and only a few vignettes that give you some insight on what's happening. I think that a lot of gamers might not even know what's going on which may leave something to be desired.
For the most part, the puzzles in A Rose in the Twilight aren't too difficult. You will run into a few that will require some thinking, but I never felt like I was ever stuck. At times you are required to revisit areas that you've already explored to unlock blood memories. These memories are actually required for you to advance with the story, so there is a tiny amount of backtracking using a simple fast travel feature. The best (or worst?) part about these blood offerings is that you get to see Rose killed in some surprisingly brutal ways.
A Rose in the Twilight took me roughly 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours to complete. The whole time I was playing I was constantly reminded of Limbo, which is never a bad thing. If you're looking for a fun puzzle-platformer with a decent amount of blood then Rose in the Twilight is definitely worth checking out.
4.25 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NIS for providing us with the code.
FATED: The Silent Oath Review
FATED: The Silent Oath takes a cinematic approach to virtual reality. Find out if you want to embark on this journey in this review of FATED: The Silent Oath!
Mass VR is still relatively new, which means that we are going to see a lot of experiments and different approaches to types of games. FATED: The Silent Oath minimizes gameplay and focuses more on an interactive cinematic experience that puts the player right in the middle of a beautiful 3D animated movie.
In the beginning of FATED, you find yourself on a carriage near death. A god comes to you and tells you that she will trade you your life for your voice, meaning that going forward the only way you can communicate is by nodding yes or no. This way of interacting felt new to me although I don't think very much changes based on your choices.
As the story starts to develop, you begin to discover that the lives of everyone you know have been shattered by the return of angry ancient gods. Everyone in the town, including your family, is feeling a sense of dread, so it's your mission to bring everyone together while protecting your family.
As I mentioned before FATED is more focused on a cinematic experience rather than gameplay, but the few gameplay moments all work incredibly well. You'll find yourself hunting for food, driving a horse and carriage, and solving a few puzzles over FATED's five acts. While none of these parts are extremely long or very challenging, it does help to push the story forward.
Another nice aspect is that graphically FATED is one of the best PSVR games that I've played. The scenery is gorgeous and the characters have a cartoon quality that's a bit Pixar-esque. The only drawback is that this experience lasts just over an hour, so while you may fall in love with the world FATED does end a bit too early. Without spoiling anything, I, unfortunately, have to say that when the game ended I was completely caught off guard. A major dramatic event takes place then the credits roll leaving you wondering what happened? It honestly feels like the end of a TV episode and that you have to tune in the next week to find out what's going to happen to these people that you've become attached to. This is a real bummer because the entire game is focused on the story and to come up short really hurts the experience. I even played the fifth act a few times to see if there were multiple endings just to be sure, but I always got the same results.
FATED: The Silent Oath does a great job introducing the concept of interactive cinematic experiences to the PSVR, but with the abrupt ending it feels more like a long tech demo rather than a complete game. The world is gorgeous, the interactions work well, but you will most likely be let down by the ending.
3.25 stars out of 5
Thank you to Frima Studio for providing us with the code.
Old Time Hockey Review
Arcade style hockey is back! Find out if Old Time Hockey delivers a massive hip check or if it should be put in the penalty box in this review!
Old Time Hockey takes all of the best aspects of hockey and puts them into one arcade style game. There are plenty of fights, hard hits, and injuries to keep you entertained for a while, but a few frustrating elements leave this game coming up a little short.
One of the most interesting parts of Old Time Hockey is the story mode. You play as the fictional team the Schuylkill Hinto Brews who are a bunch of violent drunks who happen to play hockey. During each game in the story mode, you have certain objectives you have to complete before you can advance. These can range from simply winning the game to winning x percent of faceoffs. There are also secondary objectives that you can complete that will help level up your team's skills. The issue with this is that each period is either 2 or 3 minutes depending on the difficulty you're playing on, meaning each game is either 6 or 9 minutes and the pace of play matches something that's more like a real NHL game. If the speed of the players were increased I don't think that this would be as big of a deal.
Old Time Hockey also frequently introduces new mechanic tutorials as you progress in the story. If you happen to fail or get stuck on one of them then you have to start the tutorial from the beginning. There was one objective where I had to fight with the opposing goalie that proved to be extremely difficult not only because of the requirements and the time limits, but because the camera always follows the action and you can't start a fight when you have the puck.
One of the things that I wished I knew before starting the story mode was that you don't have to win the games to begin with. I think that most gamers feel that their objective above all else is to win, especially when you're dealing with a sports title. Once I learned that the game was just putting me through a long tutorial, things got better. The story mode even includes funny newspaper headlines and loading screens that keep you up to date with hilarious things that are happening to your team while they're not playing. Also, Old Time Hockey features an awesome broadcaster that does a great job making the action feel real.
The mechanics in Old Time Hockey work well overall. There is an "on fire" feature a la NBA Jam where you gain an advantage for hip checking your opponent three times or getting on a power play. There are also frequent fights where you have to dodge and punch. If you successfully knock out your opponent, they become fatigued or injured. If they become fatigued, then their offensive and defensive skills diminish drastically. This can also happen to you, so be careful. If you happen to injure enough players on the other team, they are forced to forfeit the game. If you're super proactive in making this happen and winning the fights, you can definitely pull it off, but because the periods are so short you may have trouble doing this.
The game also features a couch coop exhibition mode that allows up to 4 people to play with or against each other. Old Time Hockey is definitely an arcadey game that hockey fans would enjoy playing with friends or family.
Overall, Old Time Hockey does come up a little short. After I played through the story mode the first time and I had a better grasp on the game it did become more fun, but unfortunately, that took too long.
2.75 out of 5 Stars
Thank you to V7 Entertainment for providing the code.
Everything Review
Everything promises that players can anything in the world, but does it deliver? Find out in this review!
David OReilly is probably best known for making unique animations, but recently he has begun developing video games. In 2014 he released his first game "Mountain", where you simply observe a mountain without controlling anything. This may sound a bit odd, but Mountain received critical acclaim and laid the foundation of "Everything."
As soon as I heard that Everything promised to let the player control anything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, I instantly put up my guard. There have been way too many times where developers promise gamers the ability to do something you've never done before only to leave them disappointed. Fortunately for us, where other developers have failed, Everything delivers.
You first start off by entering a name. You are then put on a random planet controlling a random object. For me, I started on an ice planet controlling a polar bear. The very first thing I noticed (which is also the same that other people noticed in the official trailers) is that a lot of the animal's movements resemble stiff somersaults. At this point, I'm thinking what is going on? But I pushed through and began exploring my surroundings. After discovering a few different types of trees and a few standard animals, I started to get that feeling of dread that I may have been lied to again, but that quickly went away when I learned how to ascend and descend into different levels. These levels range from microscopic to being out in the middle of the universe surrounded by different types of galaxies. Only once I realized the true scale of Everything did I really start to appreciate what was happening.
Now even though you can get as small as the smallest atom, Everything never becomes overwhelming. While there doesn't seem to be true objectives, you will find yourself collecting objects from certain classifications (animals, trees, viruses, spacecraft, etc) to try to complete a collection. Whenever you go to a new area the map appears to be as far as the eye can see, but when you move around you'll start to actually see that you're really in a confined space. This limits the number of objects that you'll find and encourages you to move to another area. The awesome thing about this is that if you visit the same type of area twice in a row (ice continent, city continent, grass continent, etc. ) there will always be something new, as long as you haven't completed your collection.
A major aspect of Everything are the readings of philosopher Alan Watts. As you progress there will be opportunities to listen to different audio clips that talk about the different ways the world is connected. These readings support the underlying theme of the entire game and have a nice calm presence that makes for an enjoyable experience.
Everything took me about 2.5 - 3 hours to complete. Once you finish, you can keep collecting objects in your game or start a new game plus. Everything relies heavily on experience, which isn't a bad thing, as long as you know what you're getting into. If you've enjoyed games like Journey, flOw, Flower, or even the Katamari series, then Everything is definitely worth your time.
4.5 out of 5
Thank you to Double Fine and David OReilly for providing the code.
Loot Rascals Review
Loot Rascals features an amazing classic cartoon art style, but is that all it features? Find out if Loot Rascals is worth your time in this review!
For as many games as I've played I've never actually played a true "roguelike." I really didn't know what this meant until I played Loot Rascals. What appears to be a simple game with procedurally generated levels where you loot cards and strategically move one space at a time in an attempt to gain an advantage over an enemy, is surprisingly difficult due to the all too real threat of permadeath, but also incredibly satisfying.
At the start of every level, you have 250 turns to find the exit portal, which will take you to the next world. Each time you walk, loot a card, use an ability, or get into combat counts as a turn. Once you run out of the first 250 turns, extra enemies spawn after the next 50 turns until a monster spawns that pretty much causes instant death if he catches you. It's not too hard to find the portal once you have a firm grasp on Loot Rascals.
Loot Rascals feature 7 different types of cards; attack, defense, passive, ability, unique, burst, and mysterious artifacts. Attack and defense cards increase your damage and determine how much damage you can withstand respectively. These cards can also come with bonuses that will increase the strength of themselves or the cards around them. Passive cards don't need to be equipped to enjoy their benefits but do require tokens which are received from "decompiling" extra cards. Ability cards feature different spells such as healing, fire and lightning attacks, teleportation, freezing enemies, and decoys that will distract enemies. Unique cards have to be equipped but can give you extra health, additional points to your attack and defense cards, and other things that affect the actual gameplay of the game such as taking away your "turns" and replacing it with a time limit. Burst cards (which may not be there official name) will combine all of the equipped attack or defense cards into one super strong card, however you will lose any bonus those cards have. I finished the game and I'm still not sure what the mysterious artifacts do, but I can tell you this, don't decompile them.
Loot Rascals features a day/night cycle which changes every 5 turns and determines if you'll have an advantage or disadvantage over your enemies. The advantage that you want is the ability to attack first. Attacking first will not only damage the enemy first but it will also increase your chance of blocking. There are times where you find that no matter what you do you are in a situation where you're going to be attacked first, so in those instances just hope that you have a good amount of defense.
One of my favorite parts of Loot Rascals is the community aspect. During your adventure you'll find cards that once belonged to other real life player's characters who have died. You can choose to send the card back and be rewarded with the chance of finding a helpful hologram who will fight and take damage on your behalf or you can choose to keep it, which will result in the chance that an angry hologram will show up and try to kill you. I found myself only keeping the cards that either came with an ability and had a really good bonus. When you die (which you will a lot) people can choose to send the card back to you where you can find them back at your base. If people are nice enough you can easily start a round with a pretty decent inventory.
Loot Rascals also features one quest per level. Each quest is to kill a powerful named enemy and return the card to your base. If you do complete the quests you can receive additional health, a card that will reveal the entire map, 30 tokens, or 2 extra spaces for your inventory. Depending on how strong the enemy is and what your current attack/defense situation is you may find yourself passing on quests, but if you have the turns to spare and feel good about your situation, these quests are totally worth completing.
Because Loot Rascals is procedurally generated, you may be dead on arrival. There were times where I started up a new round only to find an enemy that meant certain death. There are also other situations that you'll find yourself surrounded by enemies where your only option is to die. Some of these may be at the fault of the player, but other times they aren't. Luckily, if you die, you can quickly start a new round and try again.
One of the other things that was frustrating for me was that Loot Rascals crashed on me way too many times. I understand that no game is free of bugs, but at one point I had found myself moments away from killing the final boss only for the game to crash. I had been playing the game for almost a week and had only reached the final boss about six times, only to have it taken away from me. This was probably an isolated event, but nonetheless, crashes are never a good thing.
In all honesty, I absolutely love Loot Rascals. It's definitely a challenging game that takes a lot of patience, but in the end, it's totally worth your time. I'd love to give it a 4.75/5 but due to the crashes the highest score I feel that I can give it as a 4/5. There's no doubt in my mind you won't regret purchasing Loot Rascals.
4 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to Hollow Ponds for providing us with the code.
Unearthing Mars Review
Unearthing Mars sends you on journey of discovery to the red planet. Find out if this is a trip you want to take or if you better off staying back at home in this review!
Generally, there are two types of VR titles; experiences where you are immersed in your surroundings with very little interaction, and games which can be almost anything; rarely do we see a title that is both. Unearthing Mars combines these two elements into an interesting story with some surprisingly fun gameplay.
When Unearthing Mars first starts, it doesn't do itself any favors. You are standing in front of a large holographic map of Mars listening to two people who sound robotic talk back and forth to each other. There are a few interactions like responding to two people and spinning around the Mars map, but then the chapter ends and you're left wondering "what did I get myself into?" These reservations are rightfully felt, but if you just give Unearthing Mars a little more time you'll discover an odd but interesting game.
The second chapter puts you in the seat as a copilot aboard a spaceship that is headed for Mars. You and your commander have to work together to ensure that you land safely. If you mess up along the way, you lose something similar to health and if you do too many wrong inputs, you ultimately fail. After you safely guide your ship to Mars, the game really starts to open up.
Once you're out of your spaceship you can move around by hopping around to different designated areas. It seems like the biggest hurdle for any VR game is how to move your character without making the user feel nauseous. While I didn't feel any discomfort with Unearthing Mars, I did find the way you move to be a little odd. To move you simply aim the PlayStation Move Wand and click on one of the designated areas. The issue with this is that for some reason there is an arch added to the movement rather than just a straight line. This means to move somewhere far away you need to point the Move wand up at an angle instead of just straight ahead. It's an odd design choice and it just doesn't feel natural.
Voice acting has to be one of the hardest things to nail because it seems that so many indie games have trouble with this. I mentioned earlier that the voices between the two characters sounded robotic, but fortunately the voice acting gets progressively better as it begins to sound more natural. This definitely helps the immersion because you are no longer focused on how bad the characters sound.
The objectives in the game are pretty easy to figure out which keeps the story going. The entire experience will take you about one and a half to two hours to complete. You may run into a few parts that take some thinking, but for the most part, you won't have any issue completing the game. The best part of the game comes towards the end when you get to battle against hordes of evil aliens using a shield and a gun. This part came totally out of the blue and I wish that there was more of it, but regardless, it was an absolute blast.
Overall, Unearthing Mars is rough around the edges, but it does have its charm. The world is developed nicely and there are some interesting gameplay elements. If you feel like you've exausted all the PSVR choices then you may want to give Unearthing Mars a chance, but don't expect to be blown away.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to Winking Skywalker Entertainment for providing us with the code.
DYING: Reborn PSVR Review
DYING: Reborn's abridged version comes to the PSVR. Find out if this "escape the room" style game is worth your time in this review!
Publisher Oasis Games has been consistently releasing games on the PSVR since launch and after playing all of their PSVR titles I can say that DYING: Reborn is their best game yet. The main character, Mathew went out to search for his sister only to find himself locked in a room full of cockroaches, metal bars, and puzzles.
There are a total of three rooms that you have to escape from in the PSVR version compared to the six in the PS4 and PS Vita version. Because you are buying an abridged version, the price comes down to $9.99 instead of $19.99 making DYING: Reborn one of the cheapest PSVR games and not a bad deal.
Usually, when I play puzzle games I find myself overthinking and getting stuck. With DYING: Reborn overthinking is your friend. You have to examine everything in the room because the solution is rarely obvious. The best approach would be to play the game like a point-and-click adventure game where you find an item and interact with every object to see if they work. I did find myself getting stuck one time because of the graphics quality of the game. There's a part when you have to play a melody on a piano and for the longest time I couldn't figure out the hint. There's also a puzzle in final room that I was stuck on for easily over an hour because of no other reason than it was hard to figure out. It's tough for me to criticize the game because the solution was available, I just wasn't prepared for there to be such a difficult objective.
One thing that felt odd was that the game ended abruptly. I'm not sure if it's because it's the abridged version, but you don't really get closure. This, unfortunately, does make the experience feel rather incomplete. The entire game took me about three and half hours to finish and I did enjoy my time with it despite the conclusion and getting stuck on one puzzle for over an hour.
Overall, if you're looking for a PSVR game to play and you want to be challenged, then $9.99 is a low risk. While trophies never determine how I feel about a game, it is nice to know that completing DYING: Reborn PSVR will get you 100% of the trophies in one playthrough.
3.75 out of 5 stars
Thanks to Oasis Games for providing us with the code
Mervils: A VR Adventure Review
Have you been itching to play a new VR game? Find out if Mervils: A VR Adventure is the game you've been looking for in this review!
As time goes on, PlayStation VR games are starting to become longer and more in-depth. Mervils: A VR Adventure is an action-adventure platformer with RPG elements. You take control of an adventurer who is sent out to find the pages and bind the Great Mervil Book so you can defeat the dark sorcerer "Balazar the Evil."
The first thing you do is create your character. You might expect to have this option in a game that has RPG elements, but in fact, this is the first PS VR game that I've played that included it. Once you're done with your creation the fun really begins.
Each world is wildly different from each other. There's a fantasy kingdom, the wild west, an arctic level, a pirate level that includes an underwater portion and a final boss level. Within each level, you'll find a bunch of quests to complete, hidden areas, treasure chests, a final boss fight and of course, pages of the Great Mervil Book. The interesting thing is that you don't actually have to find all of the pages of the book to continue to the next level, however, if you don't find all of them, it makes upgrading your equipment incredibly difficult.
One of the most difficult things for VR games appears to be addressing the camera/movement. Mervils uses a technique that keeps the camera in place as you run around the world until you reach a certain distance and then it resets. You can also press L2 to reset the camera and bring it closer to you. The majority of the time Mervils' camera works fine, but there are times when the camera positioning can cause you to die, because you are unable to see what's hitting you. This setting can be changed to always make the camera follow you, but this has it's own issues. I'd recommend playing around with the different settings so you can find out which is the best for you.
Normally I don't get too hung up on voice acting, but this is probably the biggest flaw in Mervils. There are a ton of different voice actors, which isn't bad, but the accents are all over the place. You'll talk to one person who has an english accent, only to talk to someone who has a southern accent who is standing nearby. If the accents were consistent to each level it wouldn't be nearly as bad.
One of the my favorite aspects of Mervils is that almost each world includes a level that switches from platforming to something else. For example, the wild west world has a level that is just riding on a mine cart and collecting coins while jumping over broken pieces of track and avoiding objects. The arctic level includes a sleigh ride and the pirate level includes a pretty awesome ship battle scenario. Mervils could easily have been a pure platformer, but the fact they included different types of gameplay shows that the developers really wanted to make a memorable experience.
Mervils also features a good amount of puzzles that you have to complete if you want to find all of the pages. Some of these puzzles took some serious time and trial and error for me to complete. For the most it's easy to understand the objective of the puzzles, but just because you understand what you have to do doesn't make it easy. I have to give the developers credit for creating tough puzzles, because it seems that lately puzzles are typically not that hard.
Overall I really had a good time with Mervils: A VR Adventure. Sure, the camera and voice acting could be better, but ultimately this is a solid action-adventure, platforming, RPG that is definitely worth playing through. Finally, I want to say that the virtual reality comfort level was great. I spent about 10-12 hours in one day completing the game 100% and I never had any motion sickness.
4 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to VitruviusVR for providing the code.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin Review
Double Fine latest game brings psychic abilities to the PlayStation VR. Find out if Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is worth your time in this review!
The PlayStation VR was easily one of the more anticipated pieces of technology last year. There were plenty of reasons to get excited about it, but since the launch, there haven't been too many must-have games. Fortunately, Double Fine has stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun with Psychonauts In The Rhombus of Ruin.
The story takes place after the events of the original Psychonauts where we find out that the Grand Head of the Psychonauts Truman Zanotto, has been kidnapped. The main character, Raz, and the rest of the crew discover that Truman is being held in underwater at the Rhombus of Ruin, a former Psychonauts lab. On their way, their ship crashes and the crew is separated. Raz has to use his psychic abilities to gather his powers and save Truman Zanotto.
Right from the beginning, you can tell that a lot of time and effort went into creating the world. There are an impressive amount of fine details that most other VR games seem to neglect. At one point I picked up a record and flipped it around to find an actual tracklisting for this fake album. These little inclusions make feel like you're a part of the world rather than a spectator. I feel that I have a lot of experience in VR and there were even times where I almost reached out to grab something that was in front of me.
The gameplay is a lot different than the previous Psychonauts. Instead of being a 3D platformer you use Raz's clairvoyance ability to jump into and out of the minds of the surrounding people or creatures. In fact, you don't walk around at all, and to interact with objects or to jump in the mind of something you simply look at them press a button. The game essentially plays like a point-and-click adventure, where you have to solve puzzles moving objects or combining certain objects. None of the puzzles are overly difficult and with a little bit of trial and error you'll figure them out in no time.
As I mentioned before, to interact with things you have to look at them and press a button on the controller. This generally works fine, but there were a few times where I really felt like I had to stretch my neck and turn my head quite a bit to discover where I had to go to next. This was really the only issue that I had over the three and a half hours that it took me to complete Rhombus of Ruin.
Overall, if you're looking for a new PlayStation VR game, I couldn't recommend Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin enough. The world that Double Fine created is amazing and the characters are as lovable as they've always been. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up!
4.75 out of 5 stars
Thank you very much to Double Fine for providing us with the code.
Tales of Berseria Review
Are you ready to hit the seas with a daemon seeking revenge? Find out if you should set sail with Velvet and her companions or if this game should stay docked in this review of Tales of Berseria!
The Tales series is back with another installment, but things are a lot darker than they've ever been before. The story features a young woman named Velvet who is raising her little brother, Laphicet. One day when Velvet is away from her home the town is struck by a daemonblight that turns all of the citizens into "daemons" (prounced demons.) Amongst the chaos, Laphicet goes missing. Velvet tracks him down to only find that her brother-in-law Artorius is sacrificing Laphicet as a part of a ritual. Artorius attempts to sacrifice Velvet, but she is able to fight him off. Unfortunately for Velvet, she was somewhat affected by the daemonblight and is partially turned into a daemon. Velvet then sets out to avenge her brother and kill Artorius.
One of the highlights of the Tales series has always been the combat system. While a lot of JRPGs use a variation of turn-based combat, Tales of Berseria uses a live-action system that is much more frantic than other RPGs. You also have four people total that are fighting with three of them working completely independently. You can adjust their behavior with a simple button command, but this never felt necessary. Additionally, Berseria doesn't use mana for special abilities, but rather a Soul Gauge that depletes as an ability is used and regenerates as you either stun an enemy, kill an enemy, or just over time. This unique system is great when you're kicking butt, but can be a pain when fighting a stronger enemy. I appreciate it when any developer attempts to freshen up old mechanics, but I wouldn't miss this system it if it didn't show up in the next game. Your companions also use this.
One of the big drawbacks that I felt with Berseria is that the fights, for the most part, are incredibly easy on the normal difficulty. Unlike other JRPGs you can see the enemies in the field and can choose to either fight them or ignore them. It's logical to think that you should fight every enemy so you can level up, but the fact is that you can do a minimal amount of encounters and be fine. There were times where I was working my way through a dungeon and discovered that I was absolutely dominating every enemy. After a while, I became bored with encounters and just wanted to advance the story. I'd recommend that after about 10 hours if you find Berseria to be too easy, that you should either increase the difficulty or switch to any character other than Velvet. You can always switch back later.
Speaking of the other characters, you eventually have six people to choose from. One thing I really enjoyed about this is that the majority of your characters are in your party within about 12 hours of starting the game. This doesn't cause any inconvenience later on down the road of someone joining your party at say 30 hours, meaning that you have to buy all new gear for them or start leveling up their skills. Each character has a set of "Artes" and the more they use specific Artes, the better they become. This is also true for equipment. There's actually a lot to level up in Berseria, but most of it just happens naturally without needing to pay attention to what you're doing so you don't need to focus on it.
As I mentioned before, the dungeons are pretty massive. There are tons of corridors, breakable walls, and puzzles that you have to run through. Now, when I say "dungeons" you get the image of some dark, dank scary place, but in Berseria most of the dungeons are actually outside. Aesthetically this is a nice change of pace because it's more fun to run around a beautiful forest than a dingy cave, right? One issue is that one of the puzzles is repeated a few times and it's kind of a pain. There are color coded floating objects that you have to touch to deactivate colored doors. The issue is that when you change one color you activate another, so this may mean that you need to run back to another part of the dungeon to deactivate another color. This wouldn't be bad if it was just one dungeon that did this, but there are at least three where this happens. No one likes doing the same puzzle mechanics over and over and I am not an exception.
The story itself will take you around 50 hours to complete, but there are plenty of things to do outside of the story. There are mini-games, side quests and an awesome real-time ship simulator where you can find ingredients to cook with. Cooking is actually a pretty awesome feature that allows you to get extra perks, as well as automatically heal yourself during combat, as long as you reach certain perimeters. I definitely recommend partaking in the extras because the benefits are absolutely worth it. The story also features an amazing amount of hand drawn anime cutscenes that are always fun to watch.
Overall, Tales of Berseria is a good game for people who are both experienced and inexperienced with JRPGs. The fact that the storyline is much darker than any of the previous installments will excite people who are looking for something that breaks away from the usual "good guy" story.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to Bandi-Namco for providing the code.
Geki Yaba Runner Review
QubicGames' brings their gnome runner to the PlayStation Vita. Find out Geki Yaba Runner is worth your time or will have you running for the hills in this review!
Most runners are built on the premise that you run as far as you can until you die and then you start over. Geki Yaba Runner for the PlayStation Vita does away with the run until you die concept and incorporates a story that takes place over the course of 136 levels.
As the player, you control a gnome who has the task of rescuing a princess. The majority of levels have a minimum amount of socks that you have to collect to progress because well, you're a gnome and that's what you do. This is, of course, easier said than done. Geki Yaba Runner actually touts itself as 'one of the hardest runners out there' and I can't disagree with that. The reason for this is because not only do you have to be extremely precise, you have to remember to use all of your gnomes abilities.
The abilities consist of jumping, floating, falling fast, increased speed, and plowing through objects. If you touch a spike, you die. If you hit a wall, any wall, you die. If you run into a tree, you die. Pretty much everything will kill you, so you need to do everything perfectly and at times you're required to use two abilities or more to get through one tiny section of the game. This requires patience and muscle memory, but thank goodness respawns are instant.
I personally play a lot of runners and I can say that this one is definitely difficult, but thanks to the frequent checkpoints, it's not impossible. Regardless of the frequency, you will most likely die over 1,000 times. It wasn't unusual for me to die around 40 times on one level and in one case I died 133 times. Of course, this sounds like it would be frustrating, right? This actually drove me to play even more because I was determined to advance. There were so many times that I would say "one more level" or "one more attempt" only to find myself playing three to four more levels.
As I mentioned earlier, Geki Yaba Runner features a story, but it's pretty shallow. The story elements only feature a few still images that require you to piece together what's happening. I respect the decision to include a story in a runner, however, because it doesn't add much to the overall game, it wouldn't be missed if it wasn't there. Maybe if there's a Geki Yaba Runner 2, the story will be more developed.
Geki Yaba Runner took me about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to complete. The difficulty progresses nicely and while at times you'll get stuck, the game is addicting enough that you'll want to complete the entire adventure.
4 out of 5 stars
Thank you to QubicGames for providing the code.
Dexed Review
Ninja Theory's latest release Dexed puts the power of fire and ice in the palm of your hands! Find out if this PSVR game is hot or cold in this review.
If you happen to be a PSVR owner you know that the library of games is fairly limited. At launch, it looked promising, but it's slowed down quite a bit. Lucky for PSVR owners, Ninja Theory, who is developing the much-anticipated Hellblade, supported PSVR with their latest release, Dexed.
Dexed is a rail shooter where you use fire and ice to defeat enemies. The concept is simple enough - ice kills fire, fire kills ice, but as you may expect, it's not always that easy. The main goal of Dexed is to get the highest score possible. If you accidentally shoot ice at an ice enemy, your score will freeze and if you shoot fire at a fire enemy your score will burn and decrease dramatically.
There are a total of five levels (including a boss fight) that can be played on easy, normal, and hard. You will have no trouble completing the entire Dexed experience in a little over 30 minutes. The first time I played a level I played it on easy, but for the next four levels, I played it on hard. This didn't make Dexed all that difficult because you can't die or lose, but there is that added pressure of trying to destroy every enemy to get the highest score possible.
Although I finished the game fairly quickly, I did go back and play levels over and over to try to improve my scores. Dexed is a fun enough experience that you would want to play through it more than once and it would be a great game to compete against one of your friends on the leaderboards. The trophies in Dexed are also pretty tough, so if that's your sort of thing you'll find even more replayability.
Overall Dexed is short but does offer a great amount of replayability. Dexed is currently $9.99 on the PlayStation store which is the perfect price point, especially if you're looking a new PSVR game.
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Thank you to Ninja Theory for providing the code.
Sylvio Review
Love horror games? The award winning Sylvio makes its console debut. Find out if the scares are worth it in this review!
Most horror games give you a heart-pounding experience filled with jump scares, terrifying encounters, and ambient music that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Sylvio breaks away from these standards and provides a much creepier experience that constantly makes you feel uneasy.
You play as a Juliette Waters, an audio recordist who specializes in EVP which is just a fancy way of saying she's a ghost recorder. Your goal is to unlock the mysteries of what happened to a family by recording audio from ghosts that uncover clues and items. Once you find what you need, you are able to progress to the next task, but this isn't always easy.
Sylvio has very little direction. When I first started, I didn't really know what to do and early frustration set in. Once I started figuring out what to do, I was having a lot of fun. For the most part, you are walking around an open world trying to piece together how certain items go together while occasionally fighting ghosts, which are large black clouds, with a potato gun. That's right. A potato gun. The fights aren't that difficult, but sometimes they can come out of nowhere. If you are touched by a ghost you are transported back to the beginning of the level, but you don't lose anything. It's a minor inconvenience that doesn't really matter. Once you defeat a ghost, you record the audio they left behind and a new destination will appear on your screen. When you arrive at the destination you'll find either an item or a puzzle of some sort that you have to complete. Before I move on to the puzzles I should mention that the potato gun does shoot more than potatoes. It shoots rocks, bolts, nails, and other miscellaneous items.
The puzzles are actually quite similar to something you would find in a point and click adventure game. You have to have the right item that connects to another item and then you have to interact with it to move forward. Many of Sylvio's puzzles require you to think past just the first step. You can't just connect a sign to a windmill and expect it to generate electricity - you have to find the proper way to interact with it. This layered approach shows that a lot of thought went into the design of the objectives, making the experience more rewarding when you accomplish your task. The issue that's here though is that sometimes certain puzzles don't make sense. There are times where you are walking around aimlessly with a newly discovered item trying everything you can to make it work only to find out that you need something else or that you haven't reached the point where you can actually use it.
One of the greatest parts of Sylvio is deciphering what the ghosts say. After you record the audio, you are brought to a reel to reel machine that has six settings; play forward, play backward, slow forward, slow backward, fast forward, fast backward. This aspect of the game is always creepy. There were times where I had to turn down the TV because it would make me uncomfortable listening to the voices. It's also a good thing that this never gets old because you do this a lot. If you're really hustling and making good progress, you'll feel that you're stopping every couple of minutes to try to figure out what these ghosts are saying.
Graphically Sylvio is nothing to write home about. The entire game has a red fog that basically hangs over everything and makes it hard to see in the distance. The other textures in the game definitely aren't up to next-gen standards and even though the developer Stroboskop is a small studio I would have liked to have seen a little more graphics quality. Graphics definitely don't make a game fun, but can we all agree that to an extent they do help?
One of the biggest downfalls of Sylvio is the last level of the game. I was so confused and frustrated with what I was doing that it actually crossed my mind to put the game down and just move on. Giving up isn't my style, so I stuck with it. A good example of this frustration came when I flipped a large switch and had no clue what it did. I had to walk around this large complex only to find a small space that had opened extremely far away from where I was at. I've probably gotten soft as a gamer with all the breadcrumbs and directions that we get these days, but this was absurd. I completed the game in about 8 hours, which is much longer than I thought it was going to take.
Overall, if you're a horror fan and you want to try something different, then Sylvio is a game that you may want to check out. If you're looking for the next big horror series or you're just starting out with horror games, then I would recommend going with a different title.
2.5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to Stroboskop for providing us with the code.
Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live Review
The extremely popular VOCALOID, Hatsune Miku has made her virtual reality debut on PSVR. Find out if this is an experience is for you in this review of Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live!
Not every video game is made for every person. There are niche titles that are made for a very specific audience and sometimes you have to consider that when reviewing a game. Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live features the extremely famous VOCALOID, Hatsune Miku, performing her songs in front of the player as well as a massive digital audience.
The gameplay of Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is minimal. You use your DualShock 4 to wave and pump a glow stick in rhythm with the crowd and an occasional mini-game and you also use the mic to call out "Miku" to help get the crowd excited. If you successfully do this well enough you are rewarded with an encore, which gives you a "private" concert with Hatsune Miku. Each "stage" (which is what they call each DLC) lets you choose three songs out of a possible six for Miku to perform. The game does keep track of the songs that you've heard, so it's easy to go back and listen to the tracks you haven't heard.
The best part of the whole game are the songs. They are almost all upbeat J-pop songs that honestly make you smile. You may not know what she is saying, but it's really hard to not smile while listening to the songs. This will make people want to go back and listen to the songs that may have missed during their first playthrough.
Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is much more of an experience than an actual game. During the concert, you are able to sit in different seats around the arena which gives you a different perspective of the show. My biggest gripe is that at $15 per DLC the arena never changes. If there was an option to have some variety in the venues it would at least feel like Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live had more depth.
Overall this is not a game that I would recommend to anyone who isn't already a fan of Hatsune Miku or VOCALOIDS - and that's okay. This game is intended for a Hatsune Miku fans, but just know that it is a bit shallow and you will probably want more from the experience.
2.75 out of 5 stars
Thank you to Sega for providing us with the code.
Robinson: The Journey Review
Crytek has created a gorgeous world that is unlike anything you've seen in virtual reality. Find out if this is a place you want to explore or ignore in this review of Robinson: The Journey.
Crytek is known for making visually stunning games, so I was pretty excited when I found out they making a game for the PlayStation VR. Robinson: The Journey is an exploration puzzle game that takes place on a distant planet that's covered with dinosaurs. You, your floating AI HIGS unit, and your pet Tyrannosaurus, Laika will work together to try to discover what happened to your ship, as well as sending out emergency signals out into the universe.
Graphically, Robinson: The Journey looks as good as a game possibly can on the PS VR, but unfortunately the hardware restricts Robinson: The Journey from really shining. With that being said, Crytek has done a wonderful job creating a rich prehistoric world. One of the things that you can do is collect information on a variety of different creatures using an item that looks sort of like a move wand. In most games, this might be a drag because it feels like a pointless collectible, but in Robinson, it feels like it would be a necessity for actual survival.
The world isn't that large, but the variety in scenery makes up for a lack of areas to explore. When you are inside the area you will get hints from your HIGS unit, but outside of that, you are pretty much on your own. There are no breadcrumbs or mission indicators that hold your hand to your next objective - you are truly living in this world and must figure out what to do next. This can be both frustrating and rewarding. The sooner that you're on your own the more you will start to enjoy Robinson: The Journey.
The puzzles in the game are pretty straight forward. You'll either use the HIGS unit to distribute power to different items, use Laika to scare dinosaurs into moving where you want them to go or dropping items, or use the item that looks like a move want to pick up objects and move them. You might also be able to say that there are puzzles that have to do with the actual act of exploring. When you are climbing trees or scaling mountains you'll find that there are multiple paths. Some of these will lead you to your goal and others will lead you to a dead end. This is a nice touch because it makes Robinson a lot less linear.
The entire experience can take anywhere between 3-5 hours depending on how much exploring you do. If you take your time and collect all the data on the animals it will take you over 5 hours. Anywhere between 3 and 5 hours is the perfect amount of time for any VR game, but what makes Robinson: The Journey tough to recommend at the current digital price of $59.99, but GameStop and Amazon both sell the physical version for $39.99 and I think that is the perfect price.
Overall score 3.75 out of 5.
Thanks to Crytek for providing the code.
Sports Bar VR Review
Sports Bar VR is one of the few virtual reality games that allows you to relax in a social environment. Find out if this a bar that you want to frequent in this review!
Virtual reality games provide the user with immersive experiences that can at times be overwhelming and intense. The amount of games that are currently out there that just let the user chill out in a virtual world with their friends is severely limited. Luckily, that’s where Sports Bar VR comes in to save the day.
Currently, there are four games in Sports Bar VR; Pool (8 ball, 9 ball, 3 ball, and Killer,) darts, skee ball, and air hockey, with more to come in the future. The games are pretty straight forward if you’ve played them before, but at times the controls and Move Wand responsiveness can get in the way of what would be an overall fun experience.
Without a doubt, playing pool is the highlight of Sports Bar VR, so naturally, that’s where we are going to start. Originally the game was released as Pool Nation for the HTC Vive, which allowed you to physically walk around a virtual table. With the PlayStation version, you can either teleport to different parts of the table or you can access Hulk Mode which allows you to rotate the table around you. To set up the perfect shot all you have to do is lock on using the back left trigger on the Move Wand, pull the right Move Wand back,e and then push forward. It’s simple enough to execute a shot, but it definitely takes some time to get good.
While playing pool you can play against an AI for an extra challenge. The AI is actually really good at the game and is a lot of fun to play against. You can also invite over a total of 5 real life players to your sports bar to play against, but I will get into the multiplayer a little more later.
The next game is darts and as much as I’d like to say it’s as good as the pool, it’s just not. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to throw the darts consistently and never got a grasp of it. The trouble may reside in the Move Wands because I’ve had a lot of trouble with throwing in other PS VR games, but regardless the darts experience wasn’t enjoyable.
Skee ball is another game that is pretty straight forward and does actually work well. Start up a game and just start rolling the balls up the ramp hoping to get the highest score. This is a nice addition but skee ball, in general, doesn’t have a lot of substance unless you are playing with someone else.
Air hockey is probably my second favorite game after pool. The AI is incredibly well balanced and every time I played against it I felt that it was a good, close match. The Move Wands responsiveness works perfectly when playing air hockey so if you’re a fan of this arcade staple, then this is the only place that I know you can currently get it in a VR environment.
The major downside for me was the multiplayer. Unfortunately, one of my Gamers Lounge companions, Robert, and I were never able to get a good connection. This caused a ton of issues when playing the game and made us wonder how well could the game handle six people if it can’t handle two. There were times where I was receiving points during an air hockey session even though it appeared that he had hit the puck back to me. It also made darts virtually impossible and the pool experience was also plagued with lag. After troubleshooting, restarting multiple sessions, and switching hosts we determined that the probably must be with the game. This is unfortunate and I do hope that the connectivity issues that we experienced eventually gets addressed in the future.
Overall Sports Bar VR is a great game if you are looking to take a break from intense horror games and other crazy virtual reality experiences. You’ll have a great time playing pool and really for some, I can imagine that’s enough.
3.25 stars out of 5
Thank you to Cherry Pop Games for providing us with the code.
The Brookhaven Experiment Review
The Brookhaven Experiment provides a heart-pounding VR experience, but do you want to put your heart through that? Find out in this review!
If there is one genre that shines brighter than any other in virtual reality, it’s horror. Saying that you won’t jump or panic pretty much guarantees that you’re setting yourself up to be scared. The Brookhaven Experiment isn’t just a battle against virtual monsters, it’s a battle against fear itself.
You start off every level directly in the middle of multiple corridors, walkways, and huge openings that give zombies, horrific mutations and huge insects a direct path to you. As the waves of enemies come, you have to think about more than just taking them out, you seriously have to assign priorities of which enemies you need to kill first. Oh yeah, and there’s no tutorial, so make sure you press all the buttons early to figure out what they do. Here’s a quick tip, the circle button on the left controller is a quick turn around. Without knowing this, I was using the Start button to completely readjust my screen, which is not an effective way to play the game.
When you enter the level, you get to choose from a handful of weapons, attachments, and throwables. Early in the game, you fairly limited to what you can select but as you progress you have to start going into levels with certain game plans. It’s safe to assume once you reach the fourth level you’re probably going to a few times and you have to start really thinking about what worked and what didn’t work. This is where I feel a major issue starts to creep up its ugly head.
To get more ammo and throwables such as proximity mines, chemical grenades, and flares you have to complete levels that you’ve already finished. About halfway through the game, there’s a level titled Storm Drain, which has one of the highest difficulty spikes I’ve ever experienced in any game. Up until this point I felt that I was being challenged, but there was never a time where I questioned the actual impossibility of the game.
Now I understand that every gamer is different, but having played well over 500 games on my PlayStation consoles, being a person who likes difficult games I feel comfortable addressing the difficulty curve that The Brookhaven Experiment takes.
One of the first issues lies 100% in the PlayStation Move tech and I won’t fault the game for that too much, but there is a time when you have to aim directly above your head at spider enemies that are crawling down the walls. These spiders shoot webbing at you that can either disable your gun or blind you temporarily which renders you ineffective against the enemies who are quickly bearing down on you. Because the Move Wands can’t be recognized above your head (and I am not that tall) you have to hold them against your chest and angle them outwards. This isn’t a natural feeling, but once you get the hang of it’s not too bad.
The other issue is the lack of ammo and throwables that you have. Whenever you complete a wave you get to decide between health and an ammo supply that comes with a random throwable. These throwables are proximity mines, chemical grenades, hand grenades, stun grenades, and flares. When you go into a level and die whatever ammo that is used doesn’t get restored and whatever throwable you bring in completely disappears whether you used them or not. Now the simple answer is don’t die and don’t get hit, but as I mentioned before the difficulty spike is tremendous. The end result of dying and reattempting the same level is that you have to go back and grind for supplies. At one point I went into a level with 900 machine gun rounds that I was saving for the final two rounds. I made it through the first wave only using around 300 rounds leaving 600 for the final wave. I quickly ran through those 600 rounds and just had to stand there waiting patiently to die. They game will tell you that you can use the butt of your gun, your knife and you totally can when you’re reloading or if there is a single enemy, but you’re definitely not going to be able to make it through waves of enemies unless you’re a samurai.
I will say that I did eventually finish the Storm Drain, but it took probably 15-20 attempts where I would die late into the 3rd or final wave and it required hours of grinding ammo and grenades just to have enough supplies to finish it.
Overall The Brookhaven Experiment is a terrifying experience that requires users to keep a level head to succeed. The intense difficulty spike will probably end up frustrating a lot of gamers.
3.25 out of 5 Stars
Weeping Doll Review
Weeping Doll is a creepy game about family secrets. Find out if this family has a history you want to explore in this review!
It's been awhile since I've played a game where the narrative has really shocked me. I've been surprised and tricked, but actual shock in what I'm hearing and seeing. Weeping Doll from Oasis Games creates a wild story that is so dark and twisted that it's almost unbelievable.
The story follows a housekeeper through a creepy mansion that looks like it's been ransacked. You know something has gone wrong and it's your job to put together the pieces. As you progress through the story you start to uncover layers of unnerving subjects such as child abuse and neglect. While other games may use metaphors to dance around sensitive subjects, Weeping Doll jumps right into them.
Weeping Doll, at its core, is a puzzle game. You enter a room and have to either figure out a way to get out or find an essential item that will help you advance. The premise is awesome, but the execution falls flat because the puzzles don't require much thinking. At one point, the game gives you a tutorial on how to combine items to solve a puzzle, but you only use it that one time. There's no option of failing either, which means that there isn't really a challenge.
I also ran into quite a few major bugs in Weeping Doll, which is always unfortunate. At one point I accidentally dropped a key and it went either through the floor or under a dresser, which forced me to reload the checkpoint. After reloading the checkpoint, I had to complete the first part of the room's puzzle again, which is fine, but the piece that I needed was nowhere to be found. This meant that I had to start a whole brand new game. Luckily, I was less than 10 minutes into the game so it wasn't too much of a pain to start over.
Once I got through the beginning, I was making real progress. The atmosphere of Weeping Doll is pretty terrifying and you constantly feel like something is about to happen. Unfortunately, there are only about three real scares in the entire game. I will say this, as odd as it may sound, Weeping Doll succeeds as a great "psychological narrative." The game really got in my head and convinced me that at any moment something scary was about to happen.
The entire game is only about an hour long so you can easily finish it in one sitting, however, there is something odd about the way the game ends. Once you finish the game, you'll hear the trophy chime, but the game keeps going. You are able to walk around the house and you may think that there is more to do, but there isn't. This is sort of a byproduct of the PSVR not showing you trophies when you have it on, but there aren't any credits to inform you either. I probably spent an additional 10 minutes walking around trying to figure out what to do next, only to find out that I had finished the game once I looked at my trophy list.
Overall Weeping Doll is a short and strange game. It's currently only $9.99 on the PlayStation store so it's low-risk. An added bonus is that the trophies are incredibly easy so this may entice trophy hunters, but outside of that, there isn't much there. I do feel like it some real potential and I hope that the relatively new studio, Oasis Games continues to build and develop their games further because they definitely have a knack for crazy stories.
2.25 out of 5 Stars
Thank you to Oasis Games for providing us with the code.
Wayward Sky Review
Duty calls as you must climb a monstrous flying fortress to rescue your father, but is this a mission you even want to bother with? Find out in this review Wayward Sky!
When reviewing PlayStation VR titles it's easy to get overly impressed with games that would be average because the level of immersion is unlike anything gamers have experienced before. Your body actually responds physically and at times you get fooled into believing that you can interact with virtual objects. I've had the pleasure to play and review a handful of PlayStation VR games and can say that Wayward Sky is one of my favorite virtual reality games.
The story follows Bess, a young girl who must save her father from a slightly mentally disturbed kid named Thaddeus who shot down their airplane. Thaddeus lives on a monstrous flying base that is maintained and populated by robots. Over the course of the game, you solve puzzles and meet friendly robots while ascending this floating fortress.
The first and most noticeable aspect of the game is the gorgeous art style. For the majority of Wayward Sky, the camera is a fixed isometric perspective, which makes the presentation sort of look like a board game. There are a few times where the camera does switch into a first-person mode and you have to solve puzzles by controlling two separate hands. The game looks just as great while in first-person, so it was nice to see that the graphics didn't lose any quality, which can be an issue in VR games. I did find that I had some issues while trying to complete the puzzles in first-person. There were times where my hands wouldn't respond the way that I expected and it took extra maneuvering to complete objectives.
The world itself is pretty fun to explore and there are a lot of hidden collectibles. I am usually not a person who enjoys hunting for collectibles because it just seems like a cheap way to add more time to a game, but I really didn't mind it in Wayward Sky. The reason is because there are only two different types of collectibles to find: windchimes and robot pieces. Once you collect all the pieces of a specific robot you can then use that robot in a mini-game that is sort of like a beat 'em up /
horizontal shooter. It's a fun little game and it also gives the collectibles an actual point.
Wayward Sky will take around 2-2 1/2 hours to finish which isn't a bad length, but this is one game that I wouldn't mind another hour. The major issue of Wayward Sky is that the puzzles are incredibly easy. Just by using trial and error you'll be able to make it through any of the Wayward Sky's challenges. Without having to think about the solutions, the objectives just become something that slows you down rather than something that adds anything to the experience.
Overall Wayward Sky is a quick, solid game that has a wonderful presentation. You can easily sit down with your PSVR, discover a nice story, and see a beautifully designed world all before you have to go to bed for the night.
3.75 out of 5 Stars
Thank you very much to Uber Entertainment for providing the code.