Bounty Train Review

Bounty Train is a unique game from Daedalic Entertainment. With its own unique take of the train simulation genre, you must strategically plan and maneuver between trade routes in order to complete missions and build a new rail route.

At first, the game is a little confusing as the tutorial for it lasts around 10 seconds and tells you how to send your train to a new destination. From then on out, you are on your own as you progress through the story, evade and defeat the enemies and make money from transporting goods on your steam train.

To proceed through the game you must complete quests for people in various cities, earning enough cash to purchase the license to travel to the next area. Whilst traveling around, you can get attacked by bandits or even stop to trade with traveling traders. You can meet a variety of passengers in the different cities who will have requests from you, such as transport them to Boston. You can also buy and transport cargo to different cities for a little extra cash.

The combat system can be flawed in places, as some enemies can stand out of your range and you literally get forced to stand still and take the damage whilst you wait for the battle timer to reach zero. The combat itself though is simple enough, you select your characters and click where you want them to go, who you want them to attack, whether you want them to drive the train and even if you want to put out fires on the train. The different options at the beginning of the game don’t feel very deep, however the further you progress, the more you value the different options available to you and can become quite manic when trying to fend off enemies attacking multiple carriages.

The Hardcore Mode is a really nice addition making the game's difficulty level so much higher. Within the Hardcore Mode you can’t save, load or even retry a checkpoint. I tested this at the start of the game by refusing to take the mission and the game actually ended with a short narrative of what happened to the characters. It’s a nice twist and it makes you play with a lot more emotion. You don’t need to keep it switched on either, you can turn it off whenever you wish so if you just want to complete the game to see what happens, you can go down that route.

In all honesty, when the game landed in my inbox I was very skeptical about it and was kind of dreading sitting down with it. It’s sometimes hard to resist the urge to prejudge and I can say after actually playing the game my opinion is completely reversed. It’s fun, challenging and deep enough that you can sit there for long periods enjoying the game. Currently available as an early access purchase on steam, this is certainly a title that will take many people by surprise.

Score: 4 out of 5

Thank you to Daedalic Entertainment for providing us with a copy of the game to review.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 3 V Generation Review

Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 3 V Generation (HNR3) is a Japanese style turn based Role Playing Game in which you take control of Neptune, a CPU that is one of the main superpowers in the world. From her home base of Planeptune you must take on quests and missions as you level yourself up and become once again the guardian that you were destined to be.

The story is simple enough to get involved in even if, like me, you haven’t played any of the previous titles. There is plenty of information available to provide you with enough backstory for you to push forward and enjoy the game. I found the dialogue in the game trying in many places and found myself having to fight the urge to skip quickly. It was acted out well, but the writing was poor and I felt it didn’t flow and was quite forced in places. Overall, it was easy to engage in, though and was actually pretty funny at certain points.

The battle mechanics at first are a little strange and can be off-putting, however after not very long, you get used to them and begin to sweep away enemies with ease. Whilst in a battle you can freely move your character around a pre highlighted area. You want to try and position yourself so none of the enemies will hit you from behind whilst still trying to do damage to your opponents. The styles of attacks are simple enough, in essence you have a SP Skill which is your special attack, only useable when you charge up a bar below your health bar. You also have normal attacks which you can combo together to maximise damage. The three types of attack you should use, combo attacks, power attacks and defence breaking attacks, depend on your situation so you have to think tactically what is best for your current situation. The choice in attacks, even with your different styles of basic attacks allows for some combat and tactical decision making which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The character design of the main protagonists are what you would expect from a Japanese style RPG. The bulk of the females have a cute feminine charm however the fact that nearly all of them are top heavy quickly becomes annoying. I felt as though the art designers could have showed a little more creativity than just throwing big breasts into the equation. The armour and enemy design though is the complete opposite, each of which held their own appeal and I enjoyed seeing what wacky creatures I would come across next.

The control system was quite a handful on the PC version which I reviewed and felt quite clunky. I was forced regularly to check the button configuration to find out what button I needed to use to accomplish what I wanted to do. For me, this was the biggest obstacle to try and overcome as I couldn’t ever really relax into the game and just play it. I do feel that it would be much more natural on a controller and the button symbols that are in game suggest the developer feels that way also.

The music in the game is very good, providing the right mood and ambience when necessary. It’s never too strong that it overpowers what is happening in game however it has enough of an effect that it helps set the setting nicely.

Overall, I enjoyed the game with the combat system being the real game selling aspect for me. The dialogue was unfortunately a big turn off and even after a lot of gameplay I still struggled a little with the controls but even this wasn't enough to make me stop playing. I would certainly recommend taking a look at this game but I personally will opt for the console version in the future.

3/5

Thank you to Idea Factory for providing us with a copy of this game to review.

Amnesia Memories Review

Amnesia Memories is a Visual Novel that has just launched on Steam & PlayStation Vita.  Available as a digital download only, Amnesia Memories takes you on a variety of journeys where you must formulate relationships, assess friendships and avoid suspicion as you look to piece together your fragmented memory.

When the game first begins, you are greeted by a human-like character called Orion. Orion acts as your spirit guide, carefully guiding you and providing you with advice and information in a variety of situations. It is explained to you that you have lost all of your memories due to Orion becoming fused with you and he will accompany you on a mission to help you gain your memories back in a way that won’t result in him disappearing from existence.

Immediately you a filled with a pure appreciation for the artwork, each image crafted skillfully and vividly, drawing your eyes to every subtle detail in an attempt to absorb the entire image. Throughout the game the art style never wavers or becomes a chore on the eyes, a true testament to the quality of design. Every character was unique and easily distinguishable, each fitting for the Japanese art style.

The main protagonist of the game is a female character, a blank slate if you will, which you can use to project your own thoughts and feelings onto. Although you cannot customize her, you can at least name her. Once you have named your character you are faced with a number of parallel universes in which you can “return” too. Each world has a different story and although the characters within it remain largely the same, the attitudes and opinions across them can vary wildly. The variety that these different worlds offer is essential for this type of game. Diversity and decision making being key. Best of all, when selecting which world parallel universe to return to, you aren’t provided with any indication on what that world holds, so you are going into it just as blank as the main character!

The goals of the game are simple, try to retrieve all of your memories whilst conversing with the characters of the game whilst not raising too much suspicion. Keep your suspicion levels low by the end of the game and you will get the “good” ending. I personally did pretty awful at this and got what I would presume is the “bad” ending, however I won’t give you any spoilers here! To make your decisions is as simple as you would expect, with a simple point and click mechanic on the option of choice. I think in this aspect, simplicity is certainly better and I feel that is why you would be able to sit down and appreciate this game much more on PlayStation Vita. Sitting at my PC and clicking a mouse didn’t feel right for the game.

The music in this game really annoyed me at the beginning, however, once I got involved in the story and became absorbed by what it had to offer, I soon found the music to be a pleasant backdrop for the situations that I was in. It can become monotonous if you are in one area for a particularly long time, although, if you are progressing through the game steadily then this shouldn’t become an issue.

The storyline itself from the world that I initially chose was interesting and easy to follow yet sometimes it dropped off a little. I struggled to keep myself engaged at certain points as I was having issues with the character depth and development. Although they were good at a basic level, I felt in some instances the characters were just shells and I didn’t really feel like we got to know them well enough. This obviously may differ on the different worlds as more characters become more prominent than others and take a more leading role. In all four of the different worlds, you have a different bachelor to try and win the heart of whilst not scaring him away with too much knowledge of your amnesia. Once you have completed all four of the standard worlds, you unlock a fifth bonus world.

There are a couple of small mini games as little time killers that I wouldn’t imagine you would use too often, one being rock paper scissors, the other being air hockey. Mini games aside, I would predict it would take around 30-40 hours to complete all of the worlds. Considerably more if you were trying to get each and every different ending for them!

Although this game isn’t for me, the quality is still there, which allowed me to appreciate it for what it really is. It is obvious that the game is predominately aimed towards female gamers, however male gamers can certainly enjoy it too. Considering the game doesn’t provide you with any movement at all, they have done an excellent job of making you feel in control on an entirely different level.

Score a 3 out of 5